Spadework

On a warm summer night in Stratford, Ontario, a single careless swing of a gardener’s spade severs a telephone line—and sets off a chain of devastating consequences. In the silence that follows, desire, ambition, and betrayal collide, leading inexorably to blackmail and murder.

Set against the glittering opening night of Stratford’s renowned theatre festival, Spadework unfolds as a taut, sensual exploration of power, sexuality, and moral failure. When a Bell Canada repairer arrives to fix the broken line, their youthful beauty and dangerous innocence ignite passions that ripple through the town’s tightly wound artistic community.

With sharp psychological insight and unflinching honesty, Timothy Findley exposes the fragile boundaries between longing and violence, success and ruin. Richly atmospheric, darkly witty, and deeply human, Spadework is a gripping literary novel about the secrets that fester beneath culture, ambition, and civility—and the terrible cost when they come to light.

Condition: Like New