A funny, boisterous, and deeply moving novel about aging hairstylist Roland's childhood friendship with Birdy O'Day, whose fevered quest for pop music glory drives them apart Roland Keener is an aging hairstylist who's lived and worked in the same town all his life. He's more or less content with the quiet and predictable days he shares with his partner of twenty-five years, Tony. That is, until he hears that Birdy O'Day—washed-up music icon and Roland's childhood best friend and first love—is playing his first hometown concert since fleeing decades earlier. Holing up with a scrapbook of news clippings about Birdy, Roland recalls his childhood in the '60s: Growing up poor with a single mother, he meets a boy at school who calls himself Birdy and is unlike anyone he's ever known. The two become inseparable, with Roland an eager sidekick to Birdy and his dreams of stardom. But when Birdy gets his big break, Roland is left...

Edmund was dying, but now he isn't. Granted a reprieve from the HIV that took everyone he loved away from him, Edmund decides — after a period of holing up in his Rosedale home – to jumpstart his new lease on life by diving hard into the sex and drugs of the party scene.Teresa is dying, and she's livid. Determined not to let her illness slow her down, she uses the year she has remaining to avenge past grievances and correct certain "mistakes" she feels she made – both in connection to her estranged son.Joel isn't dying, and probably won't be for a while. Coddled to a state of perpetual naivety by his mother, he moves to the big city of Toronto with dreams of becoming an artist and finding true love. What he finds is somewhat less than he bargained for — though he won't admit it.In telling the intersecting stories of Edmund, Teresa, and Joel — all of whom leave trails of hopeful chaos in their wake — ReLit Award-winning author Greg...