Liam Durcan

Liam Durcan is a neurologist at the Montreal Neurological Hospital and an Assistant Professor at McGill University.[1] He has published three books, A Short Journey by Car (Véhicule Press 2004),[2] Garcia's Heart (McClelland & Stewart 2008),[3] and The Measure of Darkness (Bellevue Literary Press 2016).[4] A Winnipeg native, Durcan also lived in Detroit briefly as a child,[5] but has been at the Montreal Neurological Institute since 1994.[1]

Writing

Garcia’s Heart (McClelland & Stewart 2008)[6] is Durcan's first novel,[7] about Patrick, who is a medical industry entrepreneur. Patrick grew up in Montreal, and an act of graffiti tagging brings Patrick in touch with Hernan Garcia, who is running a corner store or dépanneur. As the story unfolds, we find that Garcia was a doctor in Central America prior to arriving in Montreal. Garcia did work for a Central American government that has him on trial at the International Court of Justice in The Hague. Patrick attends Garcia's trial trying to sort out his feelings for his former mentor in light of the new evidence. This is complicated when Garcia's daughter appears, as she was Patrick's first girlfriend.[8] Garcia's Heart won the 2008 Arthur Ellis Award for best first novel.

The Measure of Darkness (Bellevue Literary Press 2016) is Durcan's second novel,[9] and describes the life of an architect, Martin, who has suffered neglect, a severe brain injury as a result of a car accident. Martin also cannot remember events from the days leading up to his accident, and neglect is reflected in Martin's relations with his family. He's twice divorced, and estranged from his two daughters, even though one is an architect at the firm he founded. Moreover, Martin's hasn't seen his brother in decades, yet it's the brother who comes to help him during his convelesence. While recovering, Martin recalls researching Konstantin Melnikov, a Russian architect during the Soviet era, during his undergraduate days. Martin and his supervising professor even visited Melnikov in Moscow. Thoughts of Melnikov help to pull Martin through his recovery. Of the novel, Durcan said "there was a story that I needed to tell, perhaps just for myself."[10]

A Short Journey by Car (Véhicule Press 2004) was chosen as one of The Globe and Mail's Top 100 books of 2004.[3]Quill & Quire says of Durcan, "even when he’s falling flat, Durcan is a smooth and confident writer. Some hit-and-miss is inevitable in a collection of this breadth, and Short Journey’s good stuff bodes well for the author’s future work."[11]

Durcan's short fiction has been published in The Fiddlehead, Zoetrope, The Antigonish Review, and Maisonneuve.[12][13]

Awards

Durcan won the 2004 QWF/CBC Quebec short story competition for Kick (published in A Short Journey by Car), has been nominated for the Journey Prize,[7] and was long-listed for the 2009 Dublin IMPAC prize for his debut novel, Garcia’s Heart.[14]

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References
  1. McGill Reporter | Liam Durcan: Straddling the worlds of art and science
  2. Véhicule Press | A Short Journey by Car
  3. McClelland & Stewart | Author: Liam Durcan
  4. Bellevue Literary Press | The Measure of Darkness
  5. Montreal Gazette interview with Durcan discussing The Measure of Darkness
  6. Amazon.ca | Garcia's Heart
  7. Book Lounge | Liam Durcan
  8. Quill & Quire | Review of Garcia's Heart
  9. Montreal Gazette | The dark hemisphere of the mind: Familiar terrain for a neurologist
  10. Globe & Mail | Liam Durcan: ‘There was a story that I needed to tell, perhaps just for myself’
  11. Quill & Quire | Review of A Short Journey by Car
  12. MacMillan US | Author Liam Durcan
  13. "Fiddlehead No. 214 Winter 2002 American Standard by Liam Durcan". Archived from the original on 2010-09-13. Retrieved 2013-09-26.
  14. Montreal Gazette | Liam Durcan Makes IMPAC Long List
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