THE CAPTAIN OF KINNOULL HILL (Palimpsest Press, 2016)
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Dennis Duckworth—widely considered the least-likeable person on the Chicago music scene—is a philanderer and a misanthrope with a history of inflicting pain and suffering on everyone he meets. When a routine flight from New York mysteriously alters its path, he finds himself penniless and stranded on a wooded hillside in rural Scotland. The hill is home to Eddie the Red Cap—a curmudgeonly, thousand-year-old goblin who loves books and regrets the violent past of his people. Eddie is determined to put his murderous life of mayhem behind him; Dennis merely wants to stop being a jackass. How can it be that Dennis faces the bigger challenge? Filled with absurdity, magic, humour and hope, The Captain of Kinnoull Hill asks what happens when we can no longer abide our own nature. Can we truly change ourselves and, in the end, is it worth it to try?
“Jamie Tennant tells a funny, fast moving tale of a resilient (and often idiotic) man work working through his life problems. This book is very fun and has a lot of heart.” ⎯Max Kerman, The Arkells
“…a great deal of fun…The Captain of Kinnoull Hill earns its cred across a number of vectors: it is at once a passionate love letter to the world of popular music a la Nick Hornby’s High Fidelity, a perfectly believable foray into the realm of the supernatural, and a riotously executed example of literary humour. Tennant’s prose is sharp and comic.” – Hamilton Arts & Letters
“Tennant transforms every moment into an opportunity for laughs. The Captain of Kinnoull Hill is an exceptional comedy due to its risk taking and novel application of contemporary and centuries-old comedy staples.” – University of Toronto Quarterly
Shortlisted for the 2017 Hamilton Literary Award for Fiction and the 2017 ReLit Award (Novel).