Name: Remembering the Halifax Explosion
Start: 2024-12-06T18:00:00-04:00
Location: Dartmouth Book Exchange

Join us on the Anniversary of the Halifax Explosion as we talk with special guests Donna Jones Alward and her new historical fiction, When The World Fell Silent, Jennie Marsland and her historical romance Shattered, and Katie Ingram and her nonfiction, Breaking Disaster: Newspaper Stories of the Halifax Explosion.

Advanced registration by a purchase of a $10.00 gift certificate will be required for this event to monitor our numbers. Gift certificates can be purchased in-store, credit card by phone or etransfer. 902-435-1207 [email protected]

WHEN THE WORLD FELL SILENT
A story of loss, hope, and redemption against the most impossible odds. 1917. Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Nora Crowell wants more than her sister’s life as a wife and mother. As WWI rages across the Atlantic, she becomes a lieutenant in the Canadian Army Nursing Corp. But trouble is looming and it won’t be long before the truth comes to light.
Having lost her beloved husband in the trenches and with no-one else to turn to, Charlotte Campbell now lives with his haughty relations who treat her like the help. It is baby Aileen, the joy and light of her life, who spurs her to dream of a better life.
When tragedy strikes in Halifax Harbour, nothing for these two women will ever be the same again. Their paths will cross in the most unexpected way, trailing both heartbreak and joy its wake…
BREAKING DISASTER
"The rumble got louder, the walls quaked as if in fear, and the classroom's windows started to pulse and shake before they completely shattered, showering everyone inside with glass."
On December 6, 1917, the face of Halifax changed forever when the Imo, a Belgian Relief ship, collided with the French ship, the Mont Blanc. Shortly after 9:00 a.m., the Mont Blanc, which was carrying a large cargo of explosives, blew up. It destroyed much of the city's north end and neighbouring communities like Tuft's Cove and Dartmouth. The effect was catastrophic.
Almost immediately, aid was rushed to Halifax as survivors and workers dug through rubble and ruins for friends and family. Over 2,000 people died and 9,000 were injured, while countless others were rendered homeless. As news broke about the explosion, newspapers from Toronto to Hawaii and France to Australia scrambled to provide readers with updated information.
These and other stories gave face to a disaster which, at the time, was a mix of ever-changing statistics, details, and questions about blame. Often the reports were exaggerated and erroneous. In Halifax, newspapers carried lists of the injured, dead, and missing alongside a collection of notices and ads. This strange juxtaposition showed just how quickly the explosion had happened as holiday-themed advertisements mixed with notices about relief and stories of survival and death. Together, they present the overarching image of Halifax at the time--survival and confusion--while separately they show just how much impact one event had.
In Breaking Disaster, Ingram traces these details and stories as she pieces together the different narratives from the week that followed December 6, 1917, many of which have long faded into the larger story of the Halifax Explosion.
SHATTERED
Liam Cochrane no longer belongs. He lost his youth and his brother on the battlefields of Europe. Now he’s home in Halifax, Nova Scotia, recovering from a crippling wound, trying to dull his pain with liquor and the occasional willing woman. He’s become a stranger in the North End neighbourhood where he grew up. Alice O’Neill has never belonged. Able to read notes, but not words, she dreams of teaching music – and of Liam, who has held her heart for years and never known. But Liam has shadowy ties in England that he’s revealed to no one, and in that fall of 1917, Halifax is on a collision course with fate. On December 6, a horrific accident of war will devastate the city’s North End. What will be left for Liam and Alice when their world is shattered? "Set on the cusp of the Halifax Explosion, Shattered is a tender love story that hauntingly evokes a lost era!" Golden Heart winner and RITA nominee Deborah Hale