Dani I. Bechard. Barbaric Love

Canadian author Danny Bechard, winner of the prestigious Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best First Book, spent eight years writing this book. There are few examples in the history of literature of a first book so mature, so epic, and so comprehensive. The story of a family serves as a plot frame within which lies a vast array of themes and motifs. Bechard reimagined and skillfully utilized the traditions of Kerouac, Faulkner, and Marquez to show the reader the most important reason for writing books, for what, ultimately, we all live—how a person seeks their path, how they strive to prove—to the world and to themselves—that they are not a speck in the universe, but a significant part of it.