Christmas is often an emotional time for many and Patrick O?Flaherty offers a most unique story about a Newfoundland fisherman trying his best to make it through a tough time. The novella-length lead story follows a Newfoundland fisherman on Christmas Eve as he begins his day. The stories in this uniquely Newfoundland collection will jog the brain, lift the spirit, and touch the heart. In "Stuck on Ophelia," a political science student idly enters an introductory English class in pursuit of a girl and in "The Gift," a novice in the grim business of door-to-door campaigning comes to a startling realization. "The Visit" recreates an incident in the pre-Confederation Newfoundland outport when a family receives a relative who has lived away for many years. A boy, acting by inherited instinct, saves the lives of three men in ?The Crossing." "The Inside Track" presents a university president as he receives a series of applicants for one of the hotly contested top positions at the institution. In "The Hawker," Edwin Pratt walks along a Newfoundland coastline selling bottles of Universal Lung Healer to consumptives, and rounding out the collection is "The Uses of Literature," an unlikely tale of one man?s most inventive use of a ballpoint pen. | The Hardest Christmas Ever and Other Stories by Patrick O'flaherty, Paperback | Indigo Chapters