Blackout Odyssey

All Mallory needs to do to get home is travel across Toronto in a straight line-how hard could it be?

But in this genderbent retelling of Homer's Odyssey set in the 2003 Northeastern Blackout, nothing so simple can ever go according to plan.

Before even boarding the shuttle bus in the east end, she manages to piss off the supernatural, getting a mystical bounty placed on her head. Before long, she's navigating a haunted department store that exists out of time and space, giving dating advice to the lord of the underworld, dodging Russian mobsters and Toronto raccoons, and staging acoustic battles of the bands. All while in a broken pair of heels, just trying to hail a ride--or even find a working pay phone--before the hussy across the hall makes a play for her boyfriend Dylan's affections (and home-cooked meal).


Genre: General Fiction

"Blackout Odyssey, a gender-bent urban take on Homer's classic, sees a harried woman trying to get home-on foot-to her sexually besieged boyfriend in the midst of the 2003 blackout. In Feistner's Toronto, every shadowed corner hides a temptation or a trap; and a pissed off pantheon of tricksters runs the city like a magical mafia. This delightful, imaginative, insider view is the worst walking tour you were ever glad you went on." - Jadie Jang