Liam Durcan

Liam Durcan is a neurologist at the Montreal Neurological Hospital and an Assistant Professor at McGill University.[1] He has published three books, A Short Journey by Car (Vehicule Press 2004),[2] Garcia's Heart (McClelland & Stewart 2008),[3] and The Measure of Darkness (Bellevue Literary Press 2016).[4] A Winnipeg native, Durcan also lived in Detroit briefly as a child,[5] but has been at the Montreal Neurological Institute since 1994.[1]

Writing

Garcia’s Heart (McClelland & Stewart 2008)[6] is Durcan's first novel,[7] about Hernan Garcia, a man accused of war-crimes in his native Honduras, and Patrick Lazerenko, a man Hernan had mentored when he was just a boy spray-painting the side of Hernan's variety store.[8] Garcia's Heart won the 2008 Arthur Ellis Award for best first novel.

The Measure of Darkness (Bellevue Literary Press 2016) is Durcan's second novel,[9] and describes the life of an architect, Martin, who has suffered a severe brain injury following a car accident. The injury results in Martin losing an important commission, and he tries to recover from his injury by researching Konstantin Melnikov, a Russian architect during the Soviet era. Of the novel, Durcan said "there was a story that I needed to tell, perhaps just for myself."[10]

A Short Journey by Car (Vehicule Press 2004) was chosen as one of The Globe and Mail's Top 100 books of 2004.[3]Quill & Quire says of Durcan, "even when he’s falling flat, Durcan is a smooth and confident writer. Some hit-and-miss is inevitable in a collection of this breadth, and Short Journey’s good stuff bodes well for the author’s future work."[11]

Durcan's short fiction has been published in The Fiddlehead, Zoetrope, The Antigonish Review, and Maisonneuve.[12][13]

Awards

Durcan won the 2004 QWF/CBC Quebec short story competition for Kick (published in A Short Journey by Car), has been nominated for the Journey Prize,[7] and was long-listed for the 2009 Dublin IMPAC prize for his debut novel, Garcia’s Heart.[14]

References

  1. 1 2 McGill Reporter | Liam Durcan: Straddling the worlds of art and science
  2. ↑ Vehicule Press | A Short Journey by Car
  3. 1 2 McClelland & Stewart | Author: Liam Durcan
  4. ↑ Bellevue Literary Press | The Measure of Darkness
  5. ↑ Montreal Gazette interview with Durcan discussing The Measure of Darkness
  6. ↑ Amazon.ca | Garcia's Heart
  7. 1 2 Book Lounge | Liam Durcan
  8. ↑ Quill & Quire | Review of Garcia's Heart
  9. ↑ Montreal Gazette | The dark hemisphere of the mind: Familiar terrain for a neurologist
  10. ↑ Globe & Mail | Liam Durcan: ‘There was a story that I needed to tell, perhaps just for myself’
  11. ↑ Quill & Quire | Review of A Short Journey by Car
  12. ↑ MacMillan US | Author Liam Durcan
  13. ↑ Fiddlehead No. 214 Winter 2002 American Standard by Liam Durcan
  14. ↑ Montreal Gazette | Liam Durcan Makes IMPAC Long List

External links

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