Considering that it's one of the most sparsely populated countries on earth, Canada produces an extraordinary number of first-class fiction writers - perhaps it's that cold, clear northern air. However, Don Hannah isn't like any Canadian writer you'll have read before. Forget Margaret Atwood and Alice Munro and polished, perceptive prose. Think Karl Hiaasen, think eccentric America - think very, very strange, and you'll be closer to the spirit of The Wise and Foolish Virgins, a weird and wonderful romp which gets beneath the skin of one of those oh-so-familiar, sedate little Canadian towns to reveal a tangled web of relationships, a mass of crossed wires and some potentially explosive family secrets. What makes this such an impressive debut, however, is that along with the weird stuff, there are some genuinely affecting moments - many of them in the context of a homosexual couple forced to face up to the realities of Aids - and a fistful of memorable characters, few (if any) of them pretty. Great fun.
