The author Andrew Pyper discusses friendship, secrets, ghosts and the other themes in his new book, The Guardians (Doubleday, 2011), with Joseph Planta.

The Guardians by Andrew Pyper. (Doubleday, 2011) Click to buy this book from Amazon.ca: The Guardians

Text of introduction by Joseph Planta:

I am Planta: On the Line, in Vancouver at THECOMMENTARY.CA.

The acclaimed and bestselling author Andrew Pyper joins me again. His previous books, all critically lauded include Lost Girls, The Trade Mission, The Wildfire Season, and a short story collection, Kiss Me. His new book, his sixth, The Guardians is already selling well. It’s an engrossing book that I could only read in daylight hours. I get all fraidy-scared easily. Here’s Andrew Pyper from the last time he was on this program. This is from September 2008, when he was on to talk about his previous book, The Killing Circle:

(START CLIP)

PYPER: . . . but eventually, soon, I’m going to have clear the deck of all that stuff because I want to get, you know, fully involved in the next book.

PLANTA: And—may I ask what the next book will be about?

PYPER: Yeah, it’s a—totally different again—the premise is a haunted house story for grownups. Or at least a haunted house story without ghosts. I grew up in a small, smallish town and we had, as I think most small towns a house that was abandoned, that everyone made up stories about. And so it’s an adult story—a story of adults revisiting their childhood and the things that may or may not have happened in a haunted house.

(END CLIP)

It’s a really good book about the childhood friendship of four boys who grow up in rural Ontario connected by a dark, sinister past. The past comes back to haunt them some 20 years later, and tremendously well in this book. The Guardians, other than being a really good thriller, is profound when talking about life and death, growing older, Parkinson’s disease, murder, friendship, and importantly the male friendship variety that’s rarely discussed in fiction or elsewhere. The Guardians is published by Doubleday. The website for more is at www.andrewpyper.com. Please welcome back to the Planta: On the Line program, Andrew Pyper; Good morning, Mr. Pyper.

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