The Octave of All Souls is now into its third edition. Please read following comments to see why.

(Note: The novel is also available at a very low price for download as an electronic Amazon Kindle ebook.)

(1) The Great Canadian Novelist You've Never Heard Of - Barbara Kay, The National Post

Under the heading, "The Great Canadian Novelist You've Never Heard Of", columnist Barbara Kay in The National Post (July 21/2010) called The Octave of All Souls "an original richly imagined and eloquently rendered literary world." The same column was published August 8, 2010 in the Books Section of The Ottawa Citizen under the heading, "Discovering A Great Canadian Novelist".

http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2010/07/20/barbara-kay-the-great-canadian-novelist-you%E2%80%99ve-never-heard-of/

(2) Most Penetrating Account - David Warren, The Ottawa Citizen

Commenting in The Ottawa Citizen, Dec. 6/2009, columnist David Warren wrote that Robert Eady's "new novel, The Octave of All Souls, is the most penetrating account of small-town Ontario life I have ever read." Again, more recently, he referred to it as a major literary work - "as good & deep & elegant a novel as has appeared in this country."

(3) Michael O'Brien, author of Eclipse of the Sun and The Plague Journal has called The Octave of All Souls "a great novel."

(4) John Redmond had this to say about The Octave of All Souls in his review on LibraryThing.

"A beautiful novel. Robert Eady gives a detailed and respectful look at life in a small Ontario town over several decades. The novel is told in the form of a series of letters from the narrator, an aging native of the town, to a childhood friend who has long since left the community.As a native of rural (small town) Ontario, this novel strikes me as in many ways a more true portrayal of that life than the much lauded portraits by Alice Munro covering much the same territory. Not necessarily in an artistic sense (though Eady's writing is excellent). But in allowing me to see the people and events without the deadening emptiness of Munro's modernist perspective. There is still a "southern Ontario gothic" element (it's really there after all!), but the attraction for me is that the possibility of transcendence is more than a forlorn hope."

(5) Wisdom of this good work of fiction...

In the June 2011 edition of Challenge magazine, Philip Prins wrote: "We ought to absorb the wisdom of this good work of fiction by Robert Eady. It is a reminder of who we Catholics really are, and how we in our own Canadian 'towns' might continue the life of Faith throughout the liturgical year, and even in the Octave of All Souls."

(6) Vivid Characters, Absorbing, Wise, Funny...

The award-winning novelist Deborah Gyapong has described The Octave of All Souls as follows: "Vivid characters, absorbing, wise, funny. This is a deeply Catholic book yet there isn't a preachy note. It is so true, so realistic, so tender, its descriptions so apt that it deserves to win one of the big Canadian Literature Awards. It reminds me a bit of Gilead by Marilynne Robinson in the craftsmanship."

http://wcr.ab.ca/old-site/columns/reviews/deborahgyapong/2009/deborahgyapong122109.shtml

(7) Sympathetic Character and Believeable Small Town

In her review in Catholic Insight (November, 2010), Joan Tardif wrote of J.T., the main character of the epistolary novel, The Octave of All Souls, the following: "Despite her religious anxieties, J.T. is a very sympathetic character for whom Eady has created a believable small town. The optimistic note on which the novel ends will leave the reader with a sense of satisfaction."

Editio Sanctus Martinus

How To Acquire The Octave of All Souls 

The Octave of All Souls can be purchased via Amazon as an ebook or directly from the author using the email below. 

Queries or hard copy book purchase requests can be sent to octaveallsouls@live.com