The economic downturn left a lot of people with a confused sense of loss. Once proud centres of industry are slowly collapse inside themselves. So what is life like for the individuals of such a town. That is the brilliant element that Matthew Heiti explores in his novel The City Still Breathing.

"Normando sits on the tail of his Warlock, bow legs dangling, sun coming up. He uses the fender of the truck to pop the cap on his Northern and takes a long pull of warm beer. Scratches his belly through blue-checkered flannel, looks at the twenty-foot head of King George looking back at him. Damned big thing. Bunch of damned wood with some silver paint - doesn't know that but it's what he's heard. (Page 16)"

The northern city of Sudbury, Ontario is known for being a mining community. And with that fact comes it's reputation of harshness and grit. In The City Still Breathing Heiti has documented the lives of eleven people of that town as they try to deal with a disappearance of a dead body from a police van.

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