Landish Druken lived in the two-room attic of a house near the end of Dark Marsh Road that was in no way remindful of any other place he’d ever lived. A mile away, in a twelve-room house, his father lived alone. Under the terms of what Landish called the Sartorial Charter, his father had let him keep his clothes but had otherwise disowned him. When he was too hungry and sober to sleep, he walked the edge of the marsh in the dark, smoking the last of his cigars, following the road to where it narrowed to a path that led into the woods.   He had gone to Princeton, where father-made men spent fathermade fortunes. Now they were back home, learning the modern form of alchemy, the transmutation of sums of money into greater sums of money. He’d told them that this was, at best, all they would ever accomplish.“Whereas,” he’d said, “I will write a book that will put in their places everyone who has ever lived. It may take me as long as a month, but I will not falter.”   It was five years since he’d made the boast and he’d yet to write a word that he could resist the urge to burn.   He’d had but one real friend at Princeton, Padgett Vanderluyden, who went by Van. They’d met while Landish was sitting on one of the benches that ran along both sides of the path that led from the centre of the quad to the steps of Nassau Hall, smoking a cigar under a gauntlet of oak trees from which a steady shower of leaves f

Praise for A World Elsewhere   #1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER A Globe and Mail Best Book LONGLISTED 2013 – IMPAC Dublin Literary Award   “Johnston’s facility for inventing characters we worry about, and one we even loathe, along with a gift for word play that’s at once witty and poignant make A World Elsewhere a world well worth inhabiting.” — The Gazette   “ A World Elsewhere marks perhaps his greatest achievement in conveying the emotional state and psychology of tackling one’s past and culture.” —Telegraph-Journal   “Trust Annie Dillard’s judgment: Read it and revel in one of the funniest books that will move you to a deeper sense of the poignancy of human experience.” — The Globe and Mail   “I’ve said many times that Canadian novelists are too obsessed with the past and ought to get with the urban present, but I’m fine if Wayne Johnston sticks to his period pieces. His fictionalized stories . . . are gripping portrayals of ambition.” —NOW (Toronto) (Buy the Book feature)     Praise for Wayne Johnston   “His books are beautifully written, among the funniest I’ve ever read, yet somehow at the same time among the most poignant and moving.” —Annie Dillard "A wondrous writer--of rich, irresistibly readable prose. He possesses a deft intelligence and a rare sense of what''s truly interesting to tell about