The Blue Light Project: A Novel - Couverture souple

From the Giller Prize-nominated author of Stanley Park comes a novel about the clash of art and advertising, the cultish grip of celebrity, and the intense connections that form in times of crisis.

An unidentified man storms a television studio where KiddieFame, a controversial youth talent show, is being filmed. He is armed with an explosive device, and issues only a single demand, an interview with Thom Pegg, a disgraced former investigative journalist, down on his luck and working for a tabloid. The demand surprises everyone, Pegg most of all. So it is that Pegg finds himself inside the studio, in a position to uncover the truth.

Outside, as the hostage taking heads into its third day, enthralled and horrified onlookers watch the drama unfold through a constant stream of media and rumours. In the throes of this crisis two characters — one running from former glory and the other from corporate burnout — meet and instinctively connect. Eve is an Olympic gold medalist and much-loved local daughter. Rabbit is a secretive street artist who has just completed a massive project involving mysterious installations on the rooftops of hundreds of buildings throughout the city.

It's a fearful time, when people have grave doubts about the future and about each other. Yet when events collide, and Rabbit's installation is activated, people are shocked into seeing the power of beauty in the world, and the real possibility of hope. The Blue Light Project is a hard-hitting and emotionally wrought commentary on the forces that attract and repel us, and the faith that enables us to continue.

"Just as Taylor's first novel, Stanley Park, concludes with one of the most memorable meals in contemporary literature, the final illumination in The Blue Light Project will haunt readers for decades to come. Writing at times with the incisive vision of Margaret Atwood, the broken lyricism of Michael Ondaatje, the social realism of Rohinton Mistry and the brutal honesty of Douglas Coupland, Taylor now firmly ranks among Canada's finest authors. The Blue Light Project is an important book. Pay attention."
—Laura Moss, Associate Professor, Department of English, UBC

"Part politico-thriller, part urban romance, part cautionary tale,The Blue Light Project offers up an unforgettable portrait of the city as living being. Taylor's unnamed heartland metropolis is wounded and wild with fear, yet it fairly hums with life force, its darkened rooftops and laneways the scene of redemptive chance meetings and seemingly random creative acts. An exhilarating, at-times alarming, read - not a call to arms so much as a call to the regenerative power of art."
—Alissa York, author of Fauna and Effigy

"I read this novel straight through from cover to cover, and the next day I started it again. I don't think I've ever done that before. The Blue Light Project is a triumph of a novel. It will engross and engage you, make your heart beat faster and your mind slow down. Timothy Taylor is without a doubt one of Canada's finest writers."
—Steven Galloway, author of The Cellist of Sarajevo