Wayne is ecstatic to announce that the venerable Michael Mirrolla at Guernica Editions will publish his new book, Letters From Johnny, in April 2021.
Guernica Editions is an independent Canadian publisher with a keen eye for literature that dares to cross boundaries: No Borders. No Limits.
Letters From Johnny is a fictionalized coming of age story set in downtown Toronto in 1970. Johnny Wong is the 11yr old son of a single, immigrant mother. He is spirited and mischievous, but also lonely for friends and his absent father. His only solace are letters he is forced to write—first to a penpal, then to Dave Keon—because as Captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs, he can be trusted. His letters reveal an eclectic neighbourhood of immigrants and draft dodgers. His world begins to unravel when a neighbour is murdered, followed by a crushing betrayal, and then threats by child welfare to remove him from his well-intentioned but neglectful mother. Johnny tries to stickhandle this as the country rockets into crisis mode as the FLQ bomb and kidnap their way into the public consciousness.
Dripping with nostalgia and awash with humor, Letters From Johnny is a story of a boy and a country struggling to find themselves.
