Wonder World
A Novel
K.R. Byggdin
A Novel
Description
WINNER of the 2023 Thomas Raddall Atlantic Fiction Prize!
“What this town has done, it’s like pickling people. Taking us when we’re young and fresh and vulnerable, sticking us in a jar and filling us with all these rules they hope will preserve us from the rotting decay of worldliness. But you can’t brine someone in that much guilt and shame their whole lives and expect them not to change. Shrivel into mere husks of their former selves, sour as vinegar.”
Twenty-seven-year-old Isaac Funk is broke, drifting, and questioning his lonely existence on the East Coast. Having left his conservative hometown of Newfield, Manitoba full of piss and vinegar, Isaac’s dreams of studying music and embracing queer culture in Halifax have gradually fizzled out. When his grandfather dies and leaves him a substantial inheritance, Isaac is pulled back to the Prairies for the first time in ten years. Finding his father Abe just as enigmatic and unreachable as always and his extended family more fragmented than ever, Isaac begins to wonder if there will ever be a place for him in Newfield. Is the prodigal son home for good, or is it time to cut and run once more?
Advance Praise for Wonder World
“Wonder World is an amazing book that made me smile, laugh, cry and everything in between. Isaac Funk is one hell of a narrator! K.R. Byggdin wrote a beautiful book that explores the complex relationship between queer identity and conservative beliefs. This book is the reconciliation that we all need in our lives.” –Hasan Namir, author of God in Pink
“Treat yourself! Read Wonder World and meet Isaac Funk, a wise-cracking, queer anti-hero who returns to his small-town roots to face the family that drove him out of town 10 years earlier. Miriam Toews meets J.D. Salinger in this poignant and sassy coming-of-age novel.” –Jacqueline Dumas, author of The Heart Begins Here
“Like many of my favourite literary works grappling with big human topics like grief and belonging, K.R. Byggdin’s Wonder World is a laugh-riot punctuated with gut-punches. Isaac Funk joins the canon of prodigal queers returning to the hometowns they never imagined they could ever fit in, only here he discovers things he wasn’t previously equipped to see. The queer possibilities this book breathes into the prairies is welcome as a hard rain after a dry season.” –John Elizabeth Stintzi, author of Vanishing Monuments and My Volcano
Remarkable in its use of detail, Wonder World expands the familiar terrain of the ‘angsty Mennonite novel’ in beautiful and compelling ways. –Andrew Unger, founder of The Daily Bonnet and author of Once Removed
K.R. Byggdin
Additional information
| Weight | 0.159 kg |
|---|---|
| Dimensions | 12.7 × 1.27 × 20.32 cm |
| Format: | Epub, Kindle, Paperback, Pre-order paperback |
K.R. Byggdin’s acceptance speech at the 2023 Atlantic Book Awards
Media Coverage
K.R. Byggdin interviewed on CTV Morning Live June 15, 2023.
Top 10 reads for Pride month: Toronto Star.
Top 22 of 2022: 49th Shelf Books of the Year.
The speech that stole the show at this year’s Atlantic Book Awards.
K.R. Byggdin was interviewed for The Carillon. Read HERE.
Byggdin brings debut novel to book club. Read HERE.
Hear K.R. Byggdin on The Tide Line from the Halifax Examiner HERE.
K.R. and Wonder World in Dal News HERE.
5 Questions with K.R. Byggdin in Mennotoba.
Wonder World on The Book Shelf.
K.R. Byggdin featured in the Niverville Citizen.
Reviews
“Some writers seem to have an inborn affinity and genuine flare for originality and the kind of narrative driven storytelling style that quickly engages their reader’s rapt attention and doesn’t let go until the very last page is read. All of which is even more impressive when considering that “Wonder World” is K. R. Byggdin’s debut as a published author — and they prove to be just such a talented novelist. A masterpiece of literary fiction and readily available for personal reading lists in a digital book format (Kindle, $8.99), “Wonder World” is an especially and unreservedly recommended addition for community, college, and university library Contemporary Literary Fiction collections.” – Midwest Book Review
“Wonder World is a look at a part of the country not often written about (Casey Plett’s work and Miriam Toews’ come to mind—these places do exist in literature, just not widely) and a wonderful contribution to the queer literary landscape. I’ll be on the lookout for what Byggdin writes next.” — Tara-Michelle Ziniuk, ROOM Magazine
