The Pump

Winner of the 2022 ReLit Awards Finalist for the 2022 Trillium Book Award A Gothic collection of stories featuring carnivorous beavers, art-eaters, and family intrigue, for fans of Alice Munro and Shirley Jackson The small southern Ontario town known as The Pump lies at the crossroads of this world's violence—a tainted water supply, an apathetic municipal government, the Gothic decay of rural domesticity—and another's. In Hegele's interconnected stories, no one is immune to The Pump's sacrificial games. Lighthouse dwellers, Boy Scouts, queer church camp leaders, love-sick and sick-sick writers, nine-year-old hunters, art-eaters—each must navigate the swamp of their own morality while living on land that is always slowly (and sometimes very quickly) killing them. "An inescapable, ferocious dream of a book. Good luck getting out." —John Elizabeth Stintzi, author of Vanishing Monuments "[The] writing is beautiful... Nightmarish and yet somehow fantastical." — This Magazine A Gothic collection of stories featuring carnivorous beavers, art-eaters, and family intrigue, for fans of Alice Munro and Shirley Jackson The small southern Ontario town known as The Pump lies at the crossroads of this worlds violencea tainted water supply, an apathetic municipal government, the Gothic decay of rural domesticityand anothers. In Broomans interconnected stories, no one is immune to The Pumps sacrificial games. Lighthouse dwellers, Boy Scouts, queer church camp leaders, love-sick and sick-sick writers, nine-year-old hunters, art-eaterseach must navigate the swamp of their own morality while living on land that is always slowly (and sometimes very quickly) killing them. The Pump is populated with the kind of tough, awkward, dark, and tender characters you often find trapped in small town, no-place Canada. Youll also find beavers, salt domes, a lighthouse, marshes, more beavers, a Mercury Villager, mosquitoes, and the rest of the beavers. Brooman has woven an inescapable, ferocious dream of a book. Good luck getting out.John Elizabeth Stintzi, author of Vanishing Monuments Bristling with magic, horror, and romance, Sydney Warner Broomans The Pump transforms small-town Southern Ontario into a place of violence and sacrifice or maybe presents it as it truly is. Like nothing Ive ever read before, these killer beavers, strange diseases, and infectious waters wouldnt leave my head and drew me back to their world again and again. If only I blurbed delightfully weird books like this for the rest of my life, Id be happy.Jess Taylor, Author of Pauls and Just Pervs This is the Southern Ontario that we dont openly acknowledge but that scrapes at the back of our memories. The Pump shows us the surreal violence of living in the 401s sprawl and the staggering beauty of the nature that surrounds it. Dont be fooled by the nightmarish quality of these stories: they are as real as the Mercury Villager that Sydney Warner Brooman drives us in on. This is horror in broad daylight. These are the living ghosts that haunt so many of us who grew up here. Jia Qing Wilson-Yang, Lambda Award-winning author of Small Beauty This is what small-town Ontario looks like when David Attenborough is a distant memory, when social structures are as polluted as the water, when myth has returnedbig timein mounting waves, sweeping our smaller stories out to sea. I dont what is more terrifying: that The Pump exists, or that here, in this wretched, sinking place, you can find something that you desperately love, something that you want to survive. The Pump is an astonishing debut collection from a writer who is just warming up.Tom Cull, author of Bad Animals A Gothic Collection Of Stories Featuring Carnivorous Beavers, Art-eaters, And Family Intrigue, For Fans Of Alice Munro And Shirley Jackson The Small Southern Ontario Town Known As The Pump Lies At The Crossroads Of This World's Violence - A Tainted Water Supply, An Apathetic Municipal Government, The Gothic Decay Of Rural Domesticity - And Another's. In Brooman's Interconnected Stories, No One Is Immune To The Pump's Sacrificial Games. Lighthouse Dwellers, Boy Scouts, Queer Church Camp Leaders, Love-sick And Sick-sick Writers, Nine-year-old Hunters, Art-eaters - Each Must Navigate The Swamp Of Their Own Morality While Living On Land That Is Always Slowly (and Sometimes Very Quickly) Killing Them.