Book launch with Island author, William Andrews Thursday Oct. 17, 7:00 p.m. at Confederation Centre: Public Library –  William Andrews’ first novel, “The Grand Change: A Novel”, examines life in a small PEI community in the 1940s and 50s as changes, so common in the rest of the world, begin to take hold. Using a road as an allegory, he weaves a lyrical tale of simple country people, their struggles and their joys. The story is told through the eyes of a boy called Jake: he is the witness to life on the Hook Road and the events that change that life forever. The book is in some ways like a long poem: the people and the world they inhabit are richly and meticulously described, and the writing takes the reader to a world no one will ever see again.
William Andrews was born and raised during the forties and fifties on a mixed farm in Freetown, PEI. He left home young, shifted around a lot and tried a lot of things. He marched in regular peace time army, fished gill net on Lake Erie, sang gospel in Maritime penal institutions, carved wood in Japan and did a lot of labour type jobs in a lot of places. He was encouraged to write while at UPEI in 1970–71. He started writing in 1995. His main writing inspiration comes from being pretty widely read.