Mount Pleasant

In middle age, debt has become the most significant relationship in Harry Salter's life. He was born to wealthy parents in leafy and privileged Rosedale, at a time when the city was still defined by its WASP elite. But nothing in life has turned out the way Harry was led to expect. He's unsure of his place in society, his marriage is crumbling, his son is bordering on estranged, and on top of it all his father is dying.As he sits at his father's bedside, Harry inevitably daydreams about his inheritance. A couple of his father's millions would rescue him from his ballooning debt--maybe even save his marriage. But when the will is read, all that's left for Harry is $4200. Dale Salter's money is gone. Out of desperation and disbelief, Harry starts to dig into what happened to the money. As he follows a trail strewn with family secrets and unsavory suspicions, he discovers not only that old money has lost its grip and new money taken on an ugly hue, but that his whole existence been cast into shadow by the weight of his expectations.From the Hardcover edition.ReviewNATIONAL BESTSELLER“Gillmor’s prose is clear and readable, gleaming with dark humour that will at times make readers laugh out loud or shake their heads in agreement.... An eye-opening look at the age we live in.” —Winnipeg Free Press“With Mount Pleasant, novelist and popular historian Don Gillmor has written what is probably the best example to date in what will no doubt become a burgeoning sub-genre of CanLit: the Canadian Debt Novel.... The satire and self-lacerating humour are dead on and mercilessly dramatize broader social and economic truths.” —James Grainger, Quill & Quire“Mount Pleasant is a fun romp. Gillmor has an impressive ear for dialogue and the writing, from someone who spent much of his career as a magazine journalist, is filled with unerring detail and description. Mount Pleasant [is] an exceptionally well-crafted book, one especially entertaining for Torontonians since the city becomes one of Gillmor’s most recognizable characters. He takes us on a tour through our city, offering recognizable stores, streets and neighborhoods.” —Jennifer Hunter, Toronto Star“We will be forever in Don Gillmor’s debt.... Most readers will laugh at Gillmor’s surgical satire of middle-class mores in contemporary Toronto. He is almost effortlessly funny. But some of us—the Harrys—will also squirm.... The ridiculous menus, the financial scams, the strivers and the cynics, the great expectations and the ruinous realities: They all buzz merrily through the pages of Mount Pleasant.” —John Barber, The Globe and Mail“Very funny, very timely.... It’s a great social novel, of the kind people are often complaining we don’t have enough of, but it’s also a tragicomedy of manners tinged with a real sense of loss.” —Alex Good, National Post “In his new novel, Mount Pleasant, Don Gillmor writes the perfect, hilarious send-up of the Toronto obsession with money, real estate and status.... Read this book, and laugh. Debt is the new death. We all experience it, and we all have to face it—eventually. But who knew it could be such a delightful page-turner?” —Sarah Hampson, The Globe and Mail“A wisely, darkly, deeply, hysterically funny novel. I could have read a thousand pages of Harry Salter’s insights into the absurd and terrifying enlightenments of middle age.” —Linden MacIntyre, prize-winning author of Why Men Lie and The Bishop’s Man“Freedom’s Walter Berglund, Richler’s Barney, and The Descendants’ Matt King invite a fourth for poker—Harry Salter, hard-wired for irony and marital/parental post-mortems. Don Gillmor’s beautifully written Mount Pleasant is a brilliant comic autopsy of Toronto, the financial tsunami, and a generation—or two. You’re going to be absolutely wild about Harry!” —Linda Svendsen, author of Sussex DriveAbout the AuthorDON GILLMOR is the author of the bestselling, award-winning 2-volume history of Canada, Canada: A People's History, and 2 other books of non-fiction, The Desire of Every Living Thing, a Globe and Mail Best Book, and I Swear by Apollo. His debut novel, Kanata, was published in 2010 to critical acclaim. He has also written 9 books for children, 2 of which were nominated for a Governor General's Award. He is one of Canada's most accomplished journalists, and has been a senior editor at Walrus magazine and a contributing editor at both Saturday Night and Toronto Life. He has won 10 National Magazine Awards. He lives in Toronto with his wife and 2 children.