Joyner’s Dream is the sweeping story of a family and its dubiouslegacy: an abiding love of music coupled with a persistentknack for thieving. Beginning in England in the 1780s,continuing in Halifax at the time of the Great Explosion, andending in Toronto in the present, eight larcenous generationsfrom all walks of lifeâ€"craftsmen and highwaymen, aristocratsand servants, lawyers and B-movie actorsâ€"are connected bymusic, a secret family journal and one long-lived violin. Whenthe branches of the family are reunited and lingering secretsare revealed, we have come full circle in a hugely satisfying andsurprising tale.

This multi-generational storyâ€"told in a spellbinding seriesof historical voicesâ€"abounds in such rich social detail andsharply rendered characters, it affords the deep reading pleasuresto be found in the novels of Charles Dickens and ThomasHardy.

For eighteen years, SYLVIA TYSON was one half of the internationally renowned folk duo Ian and Sylvia, who shared a manager with such luminaries as Bob Dylan, Peter, Paul and Mary, The Band and Janis Joplin. Their hits included “Four Strong Winds,” written by Ian, and (for the group We Five) “You Were on My Mind,” written by Sylvia. Sylvia has recorded ten solo albums since the duo split in 1975, and since 2000 has been recording and performing with the group Quartette. She has also had a distinguished radio and television career, both in music and in documentaries. Sylvia Tyson is a member of the Order of Canada and the Canadian Music Hall of Fame. She lives in Toronto.