Part outlaw country song, part satirical poke at slumming as a right-of-passage, Blood Relatives tells the story of Charlie, a down-on-his-luck thirty-one year old office cleaner, whose life, since the death of his father, is out of control. Darkly comic in intent, at times hilarious, at other times unnerving, Blood Relatives creates an utterly believable fictional world that turns the conventions of the coming-of-age novel inside out. The reader follows Charlie from bad to worse, encountering along the way his unforgettable entourage, among them Hank Kinsella, dark mentor, street philosopher, Newfoundland nationalist, maker of toy Newfoundland dogs, who as a baby would not drink milk from a bottle, only Tang warmed in a pot on the stove. Is Charlie simply a nice young man who has lost his way or a young man coming into possession of a dark genetic inheritance? And just how low can he sink? The reader can only hang on as this pitch-perfect and visceral novel careens towards its conclusion, an anti-epiphany that leaves both protagonist and reader just a little wiser. - Fresh Fish Award jury citation"Blood Relatives brings Newfoundland to light in all her dark comic glory." - Patrick Warner, poet, winner of the 2007 EJ Pratt Award