Acclaimed American writer Richard Ford (The Sportswriter, Independence Day) has a new novel out. It’s called Canada, and it’s set largely in Saskatchewan.

The central character is Dell Parsons. As the novel opens, he’s a retired English teacher living in Winnipeg. Dell proceeds to reflect back on a pivotal moment in his life when, as a 15-year old boy living in Great Falls, Montana with his twin sisters, his parents were jailed for an ill-advised robbery attempt.

From there, Dell is driven to Saskatchewan by a female friend of his mother’s and placed in the care of the woman’s brother who runs a hotel in a small prairie town called Fort Royal. That’s where the bulk of the action in the novel, which is set in 1960, plays out.

Reviews so far have been positive. Here’s a link to two from the National Post and Montreal Gazette. And here’s a link to a Globe & Mail article where the Mississippi-born Ford talks about why he chose Canada as the title for the novel.