The weekend healer

the long version

On a Friday morning in a frighteningly well-groomed living room in Scarborough, Lindalou, 31, is packing up to return to Cape Breton after visiting her mother for the first time in five years. When Lindalou's 16-year-old son, Curtis, steps out for a pack of cigarettes and does not return, Lindalou fears the worst, and Curtis' disappearance is the catalyst for a harrowing weekend. The writing of The Weekend Healer, Bryden MacDonald says, began with a desire to explore the ideas of babies raising babies, the definitions of family, the beauty in what is perceived as obscenity, the pagan soul, and the nature of lies. But ultimately The Weekend Healer is about the birth of reluctant heroes in a confused and congested world.