The Island Gospel According to Samson Grief
by Steven Mayoff
Paperback (Fiction)
5.5" x 8.5”
340 pages
Release Date: October 17 2023
ISBN-13: 9781989274972
Samson Grief, a reclusive painter in PEI struggling with a creative block, is confronted by three red-haired figments of his imagination in the form of Judas Iscariot, Fagin and Shylock. They claim to be messengers of “The Supreme One”, a genderless deity who has decreed PEI to be the new Promised Land and also wants Samson to build the Island’s first synagogue. Scared, confused, and seriously doubting his sanity, Samson eventually, though grudgingly, accepts the challenge amidst increasingly bizarre obstacles.
“Readers of Steven Mayoff’s darkly humorous novel should prepare themselves to expect the unexpected. The Island Gospel According to Samson Grief provides a rollicking journey through an audaciously reimagined Prince Edward Island, a place bubbling over with intrigue, crowded with unforgettable characters both odious and ordinary, and where divine intervention is a daily occurrence. Utterly original and wildly entertaining.”
“Hilarious ontological and cultural satire canopied by sacred mystery: layered and intelligent, comforting and terrifying, schmaltzy and bittersweet. The Island Gospel According to Samson Grief fuses realism, magic realism, zeitgeist, fear, and love into a most delicious and satisfying novel.”
Steven Mayoff
Steven Mayoff (he/him) was born and raised in Montreal. His fiction and poetry have appeared in literary journals across Canada, the U.S. and abroad. He is the author of the story collection Fatted Calf Blues, winner of the 2010 PEI Book Award for Fiction; the novel Our Lady of Steerage; and two books of poetry Leonard’s Flat and Swinging Between Water and Stone. Steven lives in Foxley River, PEI.
