• Back Roads

Back Roads

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978-1-897126-21-9 | 2008 March | 216 Pages

ABOUT THIS BOOK

After collapsing from stress in a posh Vancouver restaurant, Ted Ferguson decides to abandon his workaholic lifestyle and move his family to the secluded back roads of northern Alberta, where electricity and indoor plumbing are a luxury and surviving another winter is a blessing. With his wife and young son in tow, Ted rebuilds his life surrounded by a close-knit community while encountering, among other unique characters, a vengeful dentist, a barefoot farmer living in a hillside dugout, and a store clerk who could very well be Canada's most dedicated gossip.

Humorous and insightful, this fish-out-of-water tale captures a radically different lifestyle that many urbanites dream about but will never gather the courage to attempt themselves. Back Roads speaks to the survivalist in all of us while displaying one man's resolve to reconnect with his family, the essence of life, and himself.

“Ferguson's writing style resembles Stuart MacLean's, Garrison Keillor's and Bill Bryson's, only without the rampant whimsy found among those chroniclers of the human condition.... It is in writers such as Perrin, and now Ferguson, where you get the occasional touch of Thoreau and Annie Dillard.”
~ Alberta Views

“Stubborn pride, neighbours who know more than you ever will, and animals and land that take your heart; Ted Ferguson brings the back road to life. An ‘almost local’ on my own back road for 32 years, I grimaced and laughed my way through this close-to-the-bone work of creative non-fiction.”
~ Rita Moir, author of Buffalo Jump