Awards:2001 Winterset Award (Finalist) | 2002 Newfoundland and Labrador Book Award for Fiction | 2003 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award (Longlist Finalist)

A swiftly moving narrative that insightfully and often humourously captures the Newfoundland landscape of the 1950s and 60s. The Confessions of Nipper Mooney is in many ways a story of outsiders and exiles - of flickering spirits struggling to contend with the rigours of a shallow education system, an overpowering Catholic Church, and prejudices both overt and insidious.

Following the death of his father and a discouraging brush with the supernatural, Nipper Mooney falls under the sway of the eccentric Brendan, a loner and mystic, and becomes fascinated by the inscrutable and silent Paddy Dunne. Later, in a school run by the Christian Brothers, he struggles to maintain his equilibrium as he sorts through the mixed signals of a rigid and often violent school system.

The Confessions of Nipper Mooney, full of vivid character portraits and written with a playwright's ear for dialogue, is a compelling story that charts an original course through the beauties and horrors of childhood.
 

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