David Bergen is the author of numerous acclaimed novels and short-story collections, including The Time In Between, winner of the Scotiabank Giller Prize, and Out of Mind, winner of the McNally Robinson Book of the Year Award. Away from the Dead is his thirteenth book of fiction. He lives in Winnipeg, Manitoba. 

Longlisted: Scotiabank Giller Prize

“Try to pause, please, and find some stillness to read and appreciate this beautiful book. Though the historical sweep of the story is massive and heartbreaking, Bergen’s prose remains exquisitely focused and pure. Every sentence is a small miracle of literary protection, holding back the bloody tide of the twentieth century, while tenderly holding on to what is most precious. Away from the Dead is a masterpiece, the work of a true artist operating at the highest level of his craft.” — Alexander MacLeod, author of Animal Person

“David Bergen is one of this country’s finest storytellers. What elevates and distinguishes his already fine work is a rare and extraordinary sensibility, an ability to draw on the well of community and mine the profound in the lives of ordinary people tossed about in the tumult of history. Bergen’s humanism breaks the heart and honours it.” — Noah Richler, author of What We Talk About When We Talk About War

“Set in a moment of immense volume and violence, David Bergen’s quiet unfolding of multiple upended lives during the Russian Revolution is a nuanced meditation on the mechanics of wanting. Behind the immense restraint of Bergen’s beautifully crafted sentences, there is an overflow of life, a cast of characters so deeply human in their desires and failings. Away from the Dead is a deceptively stunning novel, a testament to the resurrective power of love against what history might otherwise obliterate, written by one of Canada’s best.” — Omar El Akkad, author of What Strange Paradise