This week’s book is by yet another impressive Canadian author: Elizabeth Hay. Hay has written short fiction, creative non-fiction, essays, and four novels, all of which have received considerable critical acclaim. But this book in particular—Late Nights On Air—was widely championed as a beautifully-written story and a novel of distinction. And it was distinguished, winning the Giller Prize in 2007, the year it was published.

Drawing from her own experiences as a CBC broadcaster in Yellowknife, the story centres on the small station in the northern town and the characters who work for the radio and their wider circle of friends, family, and acquaintances. The north—as we know here in Smithers—attracts a certain type of person. Adventuresome, oddball, misfit… Hay nails all of these personality types in exquisitely-constructed characters. Harry, the past-his-prime radio host who,m for the duration of the book, becomes the station’s temporary manager, drinks too much, is generally unhappy about his life but isn’t exactly depressed either. Intelligent, skilled and knowledgeable about radio, Harry should be a great fit for the job, but he’s bitter about the evolution of radio as it becomes overshadowed by television, where was a complete and total failure. Dido, the sultry voice on the air, filled with poise, charm, and natural grace, but also a dangerous recklessness and a whole lot of baggage. Gwen, the keener whose lack of confidence has her stammering out the news during her early days on the radio but eventually she finds her feet on the late-night slot where anything goes. Eleanor, the solid and dependable “face” of the station whose past is painful and future seems destined for mediocrity. Ralph, the enigmatic and quiet technician with a passion for photography. Eddie, new to the north and not destined to stay very long. It’s a crew you might find anywhere in the north, a ragtag bunch of immigrants and locals who band together for, well, lack of anyone else to band together with. The relationships between them all are complex and touching.

The book focuses mainly on these inter-personal relationships, including the love stories that play out between the characters, but there are a couple of interesting issues that form a backdrop to the personal stories, namely the proposed Mackenzie pipeline. There’s a lot of non-fiction to this part, and it’s interesting to see a parallel between what happened decades ago up north and what’s happening right now with the Enbridge pipeline proposal.

Late Nights On Air is a book that does two things very well: it celebrates the slightly lonely intimacy of radio as a format, and it captures the essence of life in the north, life lived in big open spaces, at the mercy of the elements. It’s a gorgeous book, a great read, and another for the shelf of great Canadian novels. Find out more about the author at elizabethhay.com.