“The novel is beautifully written in prose both lyrical and clear. Descriptions of the Saskatchewan landscape capture both the beauty and severity of the prairies and the hard lives of those who live there. Humphreys addresses the unconscionable use of mentally ill human beings as LSD test subjects with subtlety and strength, and she ties this, and Leonard’s own mental health issues to a more universal theme of how mental health is viewed today. ”

— cloud lake literary review

helen humphreys returns to appetite for reading to talk to us about her most recent book of fiction, “rabbit foot bill”.

join us for a zoom call with helen over a takeout dinner from public kitchen on april 19 at 6:30 pm

“Celebrated Canadian writer Helen Humphreys’s novels almost always find their footing in historical events, often during or around war time, and they seamlessly blend meticulously researched factual detail with the elegantly understated storytelling we’ve come to expect from this author. Humphreys’s latest book, her ninth novel, is no different. Based on the true story of a murder that happened in the small prairie town of Canwood, Saskatchewan in 1947, Rabbit Foot Bill is a haunting tale of an unusual friendship, a shockingly violent act, and the lasting, devastating aftermath of war on returned soldiers and their families”

“Told with tenderness and tremendous insight into human nature, Rabbit Foot Bill is really about the profound power humans have to create such damage in the lives of others, but also to offer such love and salvation.”

— the chicago review of books