Michael Springate was a Vancouver resident when he published his debut novel, The Beautiful West & The Beloved of God (Guernica, 2014). In it, Elena and Mahfouz meet in Montreal in the spring of 2008. That summer, however, Mahfouz doesn't return from a trip to Cairo, and his father is picked up and held indefinitely for unknown charges on undisclosed evidence. No longer in contact with each other, Elena and Mahfouz must separately come to terms with their historical situation, preparing for a future shaped by forces they struggle to understand.

[BCBW 2015]