Vigil

Vigil is available now from The Bees Knees & The Travel Bug and from Breakwater Books… or ask for it at your local independent book seller!

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““Like” is not the word for a book as exquisitely rendered as this one, treating such difficult and painful topics. I loved it. I devoured it. It hurt. Maybe it even helped.” – Trudy J. Morgan-Cole, Compulsive Overreader

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The interconnected stories of Vigil are packed with uncomfortable characters caught in situations of complex morality, with each piece both a chapter in the overall story and also a stand-alone investigation of the concepts of addiction, crime, redemption, and complicity.

Vigil is a collection of interconnected short stories set in the fictional, ex-urban community of Bay Mal Verde, a town that rests between the ocean and the wilderness. A beautiful but harsh environment with few employers and even fewer social resources, residents of Bay Mal Verde must make difficult choices to survive, and these decisions set the characters swinging between self-serving greed and selfless bravery. In Bay Mal Verde, every action has a ripple effect that spreads through the community, making everyone complicit in the lives and deaths of their neighbours.

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“Just when you think you’ve grasped what a character’s up too, there’s a savagery, or a kindness, to change your opinion. And just when you think you can predict a narrative’s trajectory, there’s a swerve, a loop, or a pitch into a maw. And the resolution is chimerical, beautiful, spot on. It’s early days but I’ll call it — this will be one of the best books of 2024.” – Joan Sullivan, The Telegram 

“The stories in Taylor’s Vigil are a chorus, and they make a song that soars, the bleakness of their concerns offset by the vitality of the voices, and the shimmering moments of redemption woven like miracles throughout the text.” – Kerry Clare, Pickle Me This

“This is a polyphonic narrative, with a large cast, all of whom have main character energy… It’s a testament to her skill that they don’t jockey for space. Instead, she knits their individual narratives into a captivating tapestry.” – Sharon Bala, author of The Boat People

“…a collection of linked short stories in a drug-riddled Newfoundland outport where opportunities are thin on the ground and characters are hammered to the page… funny and wise, and the writing, exquisite.” – Lisa Moore, author of This is How We Love and co-author of Invisible Prisons

“Susie Taylor seamlessly stitches together the lives and deaths of Bay Mal Verde in this stunning and empathetic portrait of a town brimming with love against all odds. And she does it with unrivaled prose and mastery of the short story.“ – Carmella Gray-Cosgrove, author of Nowadays and Lonelier

“Taylor gives voice to a community in the midst of tragedy and on the cusp of change. The characters are beautifully crafted with depth, dignity, humour and intrigue. It’s fantastic.” – Bridget Canning, author of Some People’s Children