The Umbrella Mender
Debut novel, Buckrider Books, 2014
Purchase
The Umbrella Mender
Advance Praise
Alissa York
“In her haunting debut novel, The Umbrella Mender, Christine Fischer Guy transports us to 1950s Moose Factory, where the beleaguered staff of the local hospital are fighting to stem the tide of tuberculosis among the indigenous peoples of the North. At the heart of the novel is Hazel MacPherson, a promising young nurse who finds herself increasingly drawn to the surrounding wilderness, made manifest in the person of a troubled drifter.
Like her heroine, Fischer Guy is equally at home within the walls of the hospital and without. In language rich with sensual detail, she brings Hazel’s dualized experience into sharp focus, evoking the ghostly beauty of an X-ray one moment, the living presence of the Moose River the next. The Umbrella Mender is a gorgeous book— a moving meditation on human frailty, a sensitive portrait of conflicting cultures brought together in an uneasy truce, and a heartbreaking tale of unsanctioned love.”
Miriam Toews
“The evocative setting of a TB hospital in remote Moose Factory, a passionate and clandestine love affair, and the irresistible voice of intrepid nurse Hazel join forces to make The Umbrella Mender an absolutely compelling read from start to finish.”
Russell Wangersky
“The Umbrella Mender is a gem of hope, denial and blind faith. Nurse Hazel MacPherson’s travels, both physical and spiritual, haul you toward true North, and do their very best to leave you knowing every inch of the trip as if it were worn under your skin and marked deep in your lungs, the shadowed scar visible only by X-ray. Wonderfully, carefully written, this is a book you will not soon forget.”
Watch the trailer from my debut novel, The Umbrella Mender
Directed by Will Monahan, original artwork by Sophia Oppel, original score by Sergei Kofman.
Reviews
“The arc of the narrative is a tragic one, and the turn of events shocking and distressing… Guy, fortunately, keeps the reader interested partly because she avoids setting up stereotypical opposites… a real, though muted, sense of prolonged suspense.”
Philip Marchand reviews The Umbrella Mender
National Post, November 25, 2014.
“Fischer Guy writes supple sentences that rarely call attention to themselves. They are as fluid and forceful as the river, uncommonly beautiful…Fischer Guy has given readers a story that is Canadian yet universal; of its time and timeless.”
Laura Rock reviews The Umbrella Mender
Ottawa Review of Books, December 31, 2014
“A terrifically entertaining read from first page to last, The Umbrella Mender documents novelist Christine Fischer Guy as a major storytelling talent of the first order. Deftly crafted characters and a complex but gripping plot highlight The Umbrella Mender, making it very highly recommended for both personal reading lists and community library General Fiction collections.”
Midwest Book Review, March 2015
“Fischer Guy’s writing is strong, well paced, and evocative. The northern setting is rendered more through the characters’ interactions than by excessive detail, which works to the novel’s advantage.”
Andrew Wilmot reviews The Umbrella Mender
Broken Pencil magazine, August 2015
Press
Scaffolding the Imagination
Poet Kari Ann Ebert interviewed me about The Umbrella Mender for The Broadkill Review, December 2021
Use It as Your Own Story: An Interview with Christine Fischer Guy
The traditional knock on first novels is that they tend to be familiar, contemporary, and nakedly autobiographical.
Christine Fischer Guy: Companions, Interlocutors, Mentors, and Time Thieves
In his review of Christine Fischer Guy’s debut novel, The Umbrella Mender, Philip Marchand calls attention to the story’s atmosphere, its complex characters, and all the questions the narrative refuses to answer neatly.
Get to Know Them First: Christine Fischer Guy & The Umbrella Mender
Today, we feature Christine Fischer Guy, whose fiction has appeared in publications across Canada, but whose first novel The Umbrella Mender is still hot off the press.
The County Writes… The County Reads
Here’s my interview with Lynn Pickering of The County Writes… The County Reads for 99.3 County FM on April 18, 2015.
The County Writes… The County Reads
And a reading from The Umbrella Mender