A surprising tale of two brothers, and strange and familiar stories of the Cowichan Valley.

“Stenson's observations of the ordinariness of people are keen and revelatory.”–Prairie Fire

These stories shimmer in summer heat under the gaze of a two-humped mountain and belong to the Cowichan Valley. Children born to ex-cons, lawyers, longshoremen, wood carvers, investors and gamblers write their own new-generation stories, at times melodic, often discordant, always determined to carry a tune.

Half Brothers is a masterly and unsentimental novella about the lives of two brothers left unchanneled by parental review. One brother is tough and likes to fight, the other does not. ​One is the father’s favourite and the other hides when he can. But in an extraordinary reversal of roles, and as the years pass, readers ultimately learn which one has the true grit. In the four short stories; Ball and Chain,, Bon,,Dick and Jane and Super Reader, Stenson uses wry wit and edgy juxtapositions to capture the voices of the young and old of small-town Duncan. This is Canadian Literature at its best—calling forth a country that already exists. Flying beneath the radar, Stenson is one of our best fictionists.