by Liam Card
“Bookkeeper,” she said. “I have a question.”
“Based on the fact that you were taken too early,” I said.
“Yes. That seems to be the case.”
I informed her that, by the actions of another, she had been taken too early and would now face a very important decision.
“Choose wisely,” I said.
Acknowledgements
Special thanks to
The Ontario Arts Council for their development support through the Writers’ Reserve Fund; Dundurn Press; Allister Thompson; Shannon Whibbs; my family and closest friends for their ongoing support; and my wife, Kelda Card, for her unflinching belief in this novel from concept to bookcase, and for helping me carve the time to write it.
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Copyright © Liam Card, 2016
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise (except for brief passages for purpose of review) without the prior permission of Dundurn Press. Permission to photocopy should be requested from Access Copyright.
Project editor: Shannon Whibbs
Editor: Allister Thompson
Cover designer: Laura Boyle
Interior design: Courtney Horner
Cover image: Background: © selimaksan/istockphoto.com, Man & Hand: © Michael Brown/123RF
Epub Design: Carmen Giraudy
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Card, Liam, 1980-, author
Stopgap / Liam Card.
Issued in print and electronic formats.
ISBN 978-1-4597-3292-6 (paperback).--ISBN 978-1-4597-3293-3 (pdf).--
ISBN 978-1-4597-3294-0 (epub)
I. Title.
PS8605.A688S76 2016 C813’.6 C2015-904376-X
C2015-904377-8
We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council for our publishing program. We also acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund and Livres Canada Books, and the Government of Ontario through the Ontario Book Publishing Tax Credit and the Ontario Media Development Corporation.
Care has been taken to trace the ownership of copyright material used in this book. The author and the publisher welcome any information enabling them to rectify any references or credits in subsequent editions.
J. Kirk Howard, President
The publisher is not responsible for websites or their content unless they are owned by the publisher.
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Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Acknowledgements