The One Book One London is turning a new page. The initiative has chosen their annual book. The Initiative is meant to bring the community together with one book chosen for people around the area to read. The public literacy initiative encourages Londoners to read more and stay involved in the community- through a giant city-wide book club.
“To reach outside the walls of our normal library users, we welcome them as well, but we wanted to try something different to engage the people… London public library is here and were interesting in engaging with you.” Explained Sarah Andrews, Co-Chair for initative.
This year’s One Book One London novel is, “Saturday Night Ghost Club” by Craig Davidson. The announcement came during a meeting at London’s community library. Davidon attended the announcement to discuss his novel,
“It’s basically some kid trapped in that interesting time in your life between beings a child but also starting to see the outline of the adult world. And how their lives are going to change cause their going to enter that sphere of being an adult, and sort of got caught in that cusp of being a kid and being an adult.”
Inspired by authors like Steven King and Judy Bloom in his younger years, Davidson came up with his own coming-of age story,
“I thought now that I’m an adult, looking back at that nostalgic view point sounded like a great way to spend a year, and so I wrote a book.”
The choosing process for the novel is a thorough one as One Book One London goes through many recently published Canadian books, to decide what to encourage Londoners to read.
“We have a look at what’s been recently published by Canadian offers in the market, and this title spoke to us,” Andrews said.
“It’s tragic by the end but it’s told in such a loving way that it’s one of those books that stay with you. So, we read a bunch of titles and this one had lasting power, we felt it spoke to a really beautiful time in most people’s lives and thought it would really connect with the community.” She went on to say about the novel.
Davidson went onto add his excitement about his book being chosen,
“It’s a huge thrill I’m really grateful, there’s so many good books in Canada right now, Canadian writing is at a point where it’s as good as it’s ever been, I think. To have the luck to have this book chosen for this particular promotion or initiative is great.”
The author is hopeful the rest of the community enjoys his book,
“I guess time will tell whether they have made the right choice, I really hope they have. I think there’s a certain universality in the book. It’s a coming to age narrative, most of the people who are going to read it have grown up, are going to have memories of a child hood that hopefully they find it that book, or something that is close to their own experiences. “
The novel has been described as a coming of age story mixed with a ghost story. receiving 4/5 on good reads after being released in 2018.
“It deals very heavily with memory, which I think is fascinating on its own in the way that memories can deceive us or we can use them for comfort.” Davidson gave a little more insight into his novel, “The brain is a tricky thing and it makes you remember things you don’t want to remember sometimes.
The One Book One London initiative has been going on for four years, each year picking a different title and encouraging Londoners to read it and participate in a giant city-wide book club. The initiative offers book discussions as well as events for people participating,
“The excitement about titles has stayed the same, the engagement by the community is only getting better. With the authors as well, each year gets stronger and stronger. They like to be part of it right from the launch until the end… Every year gets better and better.” Andrews Shared about how things have changed in the past four years.
“Saturday Night Ghost Club” will be available in all London Libraries, as well as online for audio or E-book. Cela Library also offers braille copies.
