Leo McKay

Leo McKay is no stranger to addressing explosive themes in fiction. His prize-winning novel Twenty-Six, published in 2003, is a riveting account of the Westray Mine disaster from the perspective of the family of one of the dead miners as well as a searing indictment of corporate greed. In What Comes Echoing Back, McKay tackles the impact of social media on communities and individual lives. In a narrative that crosses several timelines, McKay’s novel focuses on two teens who have seen their show more lives turned upside down after their images were posted online without their consent. Patricia’s experience is one we’ve seen lead to tragedy far too often. After reluctantly attending a drinking party with two friends, she wakes up groggy and hungover to learn she’s been drugged and sexually assaulted and that a video of the event is going viral on the internet. To make matters worse, a friend who was also assaulted at the party later commits suicide. Soon Patricia finds herself the unwilling centre of attention in a small rural town in Nova Scotia’s Annapolis Valley where everyone knows everyone else’s business. Unable to cope with the humiliation, reeling from grief, feelings of self-blame and an overwhelming sense of worthlessness, Patricia goes to live with her Uncle Ray in Hubtown, where, seeking anonymity, she changes her name to Sam, keeps her head down and hopes nobody who saw the video recognizes her. Robert (nicknamed Robot), son of an alcoholic mother, is a talented guitarist whose life revolves around music. He’s also physically imposing—a trait he attempts to downplay with a low-key, self-effacing manner—but which attracts attention nonetheless. As the novel begins, Robert has just been released from prison after serving a year for killing another student in a fight. The killing was unintentional. In fact, Robert hardly knew the other boy and had no issue with him. But the fight was encouraged and staged by two students looking to gain notoriety by urging people into violent confrontations and posting the fight videos on their social media channel. Robert and Sam meet in music class and form a bond that grows out of their status as social outcasts. McKay’s novel describes Sam’s and Robert’s halting efforts to re-integrate themselves back into a society they are not sure wants anything to do with them while shielding themselves from further pain. In a series of moving scenes drawn with great compassion, we witness their first tentative steps toward one another, watch them overcome their doubts, and see how their mutual trust grows over time, bolstered and sustained by the healing power of music. At its core, What Comes Echoing Back tells a relatively straightforward tale of two damaged, vulnerable people struggling to build a connection following life-altering trauma. It leaves us wondering not only where their lives will take them next, but also questioning the forces at work in a world that seems to offer no defense against the malicious exploitation of technology that has the power to destroy innocent lives with a keystroke. A note of caution: it’s possible the depictions of violence and alcohol addiction in this novel could be triggering for some readers. Rest assured that Leo McKay’s treatment of this difficult material is unfailingly engaging and honest. show less

Read as part of "One Book Nova Scotia". At first, I didn't want to read this. It's about the Westray Mine disaster and I have to say that Disaster tourism and writing has become a bit of a giggle amongst we "come from aways" here in NS. It seems only terrible disasters are worth writing about, and that if you try to write about anything else, you will never get published.
But it suddenly called to me one day and I leapt in, like you do getting into the Atlantic Ocean.
It's a wonderful nuanced show more book, filled with characters you really grew to care about. The disaster hits hard, but it's the effect on the families and their friends that truly resonates. McKay is an excellent writer, not a word to spare. I hated to put it down. show less

Leo MaKay's novel Twenty-Six is a devastating account of a mining disaster that claims the lives of twenty-six men in the fictional town of Albion Mines, Nova Scotia. In 1987 the opening of the Eastyard coal mine is welcomed, both as a great opportunity and economic boon for the community, and by the chronically under-employed Burrows brothers, Ziv and Arvel, as a chance to start building meaningful lives. Both apply and are given positions, which will take them underground to the coal face. show more College educated Ziv does not last a single shift and ends up stocking shelves part time at Zellers and drinking too much. But for Arvel it is his first steady work in years and despite obvious dangers and management's refusal to address the safety concerns of the workers, he feels he has no choice but to stick with it. When an underground explosion claims the lives of Arvel and twenty-five others on his shift, the repercussions are immediate for the families of the men who are lost, but are also felt by people all over the world. In the aftermath of the disaster, an inquiry uncovers a trail of incompetence, neglect and corporate greed leading directly to the deaths of the twenty six men. That the novel is based on events that actually happened, at the Westray mines in Nova Scotia's Pictou County, makes McKay's novel all the more searing. The N.S. government supported a project that was doomed to failure from the get go, making its cronies on the inside fat with tax-payer's dollars. Leo McKay has taken this tragic story and constructed a taut narrative that may not be particularly uplifting, but is certainly true to life. show less

Read as part of "One Book Nova Scotia". At first, I didn't want to read this. It's about the Westray Mine disaster and I have to say that Disaster tourism and writing has become a bit of a giggle amongst we "come from aways" here in NS. It seems only terrible disasters are worth writing about, and that if you try to write about anything else, you will never get published.
But it suddenly called to me one day and I leapt in, like you do getting into the Atlantic Ocean.
It's a wonderful nuanced show more book, filled with characters you really grew to care about. The disaster hits hard, but it's the effect on the families and their friends that truly resonates. McKay is an excellent writer, not a word to spare. I hated to put it down. show less