The University of New Brunswick would like to invite you to hear a reading by the critically acclaimed writer, Wayne Johnston. His latest novel, The Son of a Certain Woman, was published just last month and has already been long listed for the Giller Prize. It is the story of Percy Joyce, born in St. John’s, Newfoundland, in the fifties, who is an outsider from childhood, set apart by a congenital disfigurement. Soon on the cusp of teenagehood, Percy is filled with longing for what he can’t have, his disturbingly alluring mother, Penelope, whose sex appeal nearly leaps off the page. Everyone in St. John’s lusts after her—including her sister-in-law, Medina; their paying boarder, the local chemistry teacher, Pops MacDougal; and . . . Percy. The Son of a Certain Woman brilliantly mixes sorrow and laughter as it builds toward an unforgettable ending.