Far from Shore

When first published in 1980, Far from Shore was hailed as unique and innovative. Author Kevin Major broke new ground in a young adult novel by using a multinarrative structure - five different voices - to tell the story of a troubled youth.

Fifteen-year-old Chris Slade lives in a small coastal community on the island of Newfoundland. Faced with instability on many sides, he searches for direction in a family broken apart by unemployment. Even his easy-going, humorous attitude fails to steady him as he stumbles through the summer after tenth grade: he's failed his year, he can't find a summer job, and he's incredibly bored. So the first thing he heads for is trouble - trouble that ends in a confrontation with the law. Work as a counselor at a summer camp offers the challenge of a fresh start, but it is here, amid new responsibilities, that he encounters his toughest test as a young man.

Kevin Major is one of Canada's foremost authors of books for children, teenagers and adults. His books include Eating Between the Lines, The House of Wooden Santas, No Man's Land and Ann and Seamus. He has won the Vicky Metcalf Award, the Mr. Christie's Book Award and has twice received the Canadian Library Association Book of the Year Award. His first novel, Hold Fast, also recently reissued by Groundwood Books, received the Governor General's Award, the CLA Book of the Year Award and the Ruth Schwartz Award, was named to the Hans Christian Andersen Honor List, and was chosen as a Best Book by School Library Journal. In 1997 a panel of experts from across Canada named it that country's second-best children's book of all time (second only to Anne of Green Gables).
Kevin lives in St. John's, Newfoundland, with his wife and two sons.