The Boy Who Was Saved by Jazz
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978-177439-110-5 | 2025 May | 320 Pages
ABOUT THIS BOOK
Robert lost his father before he’d even been born, and was quickly abandoned by his young mother to be raised by his grandparents in small-town Saskatchewan. In another sense, though, Robert never lost his father, whose ghostly presence lingers in the young boy’s life over the years by means of spectral “advice letters” on how to be a man. When Robert finds an old pump organ in a derelict farmhouse, he discovers a deep love of and talent for performing music. He also begins to discover secrets from his past, including his grandfather’s Communist ties, and the familial cover-up of his father’s sudden death. Along the way, Robert embraces his budding bisexuality, discovers his Métis identity and harnesses the power of his wild imagination. Recalling the work of Jamie Fitzpatrick and Greg Rhyno, The Boy Who Was Saved By Jazz is a coming-of-age story and meditation on belonging.
- Featured in 71 Canadian fiction books to read in spring 2025
"The Boy Who Was Saved by Jazz is Tom Bentley-Fisher riffing on an identity conundrum that moves from small town rural Saskatchewan to cosmopolitan soundscapes ranging from Prokoviev to Etta James via his protagonist Robert and the tetchy advice of a dead father. Dad watches his son stumble through his sexual yearnings and familial puzzles but remains silent about grandma. It's an energetic romp laced with picante humour through the early 1960s when the world was about to be blown up but grew up instead." — R.P. MacIntyre, awarding-winning author of Apart
“Robert Bellamy, deep in the wilderness of adolescence, wants everything to come to him on his terms. Exasperated by this impossibility and exasperating to the people who try to love him, to the point of despair their’s and his, he discovers solace in music. Tom Bentley-Fisher has created, with insight and tenderness, a boy on the perilous path of foraging connection in a dysfunctional, yet hopeful, family. The last twenty-five pages of this novel is the best of Canadian wilderness literature, exquisitely written and a beautiful ending to Robert Bellamy’s search for his identity as he embraces his life with grace and moves into manhood.” — Catherine Banks, Governor General’s Award-winning author of Bone Cage and It Is Solved By Walking
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