Alan Doyle Toronto book launch "The Smiling Land"

Another Story Bookshop and Doubleday Canada present Alan Doyle, in conversation with Stephen Brunt, for the launch of The Smiling Land: All Around the Circle in My Newfoundland and Labrador

Featuring a reading and conversation with Stephen Brunt.

Tickets are $20 for general admission or $40 for a book and ticket package. Each book & ticket package includes a presigned copy of The Smiling Land (regular price is $36.95) available upon entry to the event.

Books will be for sale and Alan Doyle will be signing (attendees can ask for a personalization on the book).

From one of Canada's most beloved and celebrated Newfoundlanders comes a rollicking insider's guide to the province, told as only Alan Doyle can tell it.
Few Canadian musicians are as synonymous with their home province as Alan Doyle is to his—and even fewer once worked as tour guides. In The Smiling Land, Alan reprises his tour-guiding role to welcome the rest of Canada to his home and take readers on an adventure: a freewheeling road trip through Newfoundland, its history, and its culture. From Fogo Island to the Southwest Coast, Labrador to Ferryland, and everywhere in between, Alan's Newfoundland awaits you.
There are visits to windswept coastlines and towering crags, ancient Viking and Basque fishing settlements, and more lighthouses than you can shake a foghorn at. More recent settlements are also part of the itinerary, from burgeoning arts venues and communities to more humble but no less world-class locales, such as Foley's Shed, a jaunty live-music pub that—as its name suggests—happens to be in some guy named Foley's shed. Alan provides savvy insider tips for visitors to St. John's, like how to score fish and chips and a free ride by hopping into the delivery person's car as they drive your food to your desired destination. Or, for the aspiring rum smuggler visiting the Burin Peninsula, how to sneak bottles from the French territory of Saint-Pierre and Miquelon to the shores of Newfoundland. There are dolphin sightings, cliffside hikes among flocks of ocean-plunging puffins, and a pilgrimage to the home of the (late) great auk. And what tour of Newfoundland could be complete without a short history of what can best be described as "icebergs that look like things," an illustrious history that includes an exact replica of the Virgin Mary that once washed into St. John's harbour, and the more recent—and far less holy—"Dickie Berg," which made international headlines for looking like . . . well, not the Virgin Mary.

ALAN DOYLE is a Canadian musician, actor and writer. His albums as a solo artist and as front man for the Newfoundland Celtic-rock band Great Big Sea have sold over a million copies. He has starred in such features as Ridley Scott's Robin Hood and CBC's Republic of Doyle. He has written three books, Where I Belong, published in 2014, A Newfoundlander in Canada, published in 2017, and All Together Now, published in 2020, each of which were national bestsellers. He has recently co-written and starred in a box-office-breaking stage musical, Tell Tale Harbour. Alan lives in St. John's, Newfoundland.

STEPHEN BRUNT is an award-winning writer and broadcaster for Sportsnet, and the co-host of The FAN 590’s Writers Bloc with Jeff Blair and Richard Deitsch. He is the author of the #1 national bestsell­ing Searching for Bobby Orr and All the Way, with Jordin Tootoo. He lives in Hamilton, Ontario, and in Win­terhouse Brook, Newfoundland.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Isabel Bader Theatre, 93 Charles Street West, Toronto, Canada