Historical Fiction of the Halifax Explosion

Recently, Halifax author John Tattrie released Black Snow: a Story of Love and Destruction, which follows the fictional character Tommy Joyce as he searches for his wife in the aftermath of the explosion.

Carol Bruneau’s 2007 book Glass Voices, features the Halifax Explosion, but is not exclusively about it. The book spans decades, but the story’s main characters are irreversibly changed by the tragedy of the 1917 explosion.

Ami MacKay’s 2006 novel about midwives in in early 20th century Nova Scotia, The Birth House, includes a section where her lead character Dora Rare assists pregnant women in the damaged city after the explosion.

More personally, Thomas Raddall has a short story called “A Winter’s Tale” which appeared in his collection The Pied Piper of Dipper Creek and has been said to be based on the author’s own experiences the morning of the Explosion.

Canadian authors are not the only ones to have included references to the Halifax Explosion in their works. American author Anita Shreve’s 2005 novel A Wedding in December includes a subplot of a surgeon’s experiences during the aftermath of the Halifax Explosion. Another American author, John Irving, includes a small section in his long novel Until I Find You that talks about the Halifax Explosion, though from the perspective of a modern character who visits Halifax to explore the possibility of playing a role in a film about the event.

If you want to more about the history of the Halifax Explosion and the resources on the explosion in the Halifax Public Libraries collections, visit our Halifax Explosion Resource List.