When the World Was Twice as Big

From Amazon Canada First Novel Award finalist and Leacock Medal for Humour nominee, an endearing story about a young man confronting a long-buried family secret, his tumultuous relationship with his father—and the girl who connects it all.

In between the pages of his grief, Bill placed a single flower plucked from a bouquet of all the things that were my fault. This one flower was special because written on its petals was this: I was the reason my mother was gone.

After young Freddy defends his childhood friend Saskia in a fist fight, he suddenly realizes that the story of his mother’s disappearance is a lie. Not only that, but Saskia is connected—the girl he loves was there the day his mother left, ten years earlier.

As Freddy tries to understand how he and Saskia are connected by an accident in their childhood, his relationship with his father, Bill, becomes increasingly fraught. Unable to accept the truth of his family’s most stubborn secrets, Freddy leaves home, determined to live a solitary life. He hides out in a remote bush camp, small town diners and a lowly East Vancouver apartment with a view of the mountains. But as the years go by, the unanswered questions about that accident weigh on Freddy and he realizes that peace will require reconnecting with the loved ones he’s tried to forget.

Through witty and heartfelt prose, Drake returns to characters Freddy and Saskia from his novel Do You Think This Is Strange? and explores the trap of false narratives, the complexity of family secrets and the hope found in a world of honed truths.