The Gunsmith's Daughter

Reviews / Votes

"An astute and subtle interrogation of a young woman's struggle to forge her own path amidst a bloody conflict and in the shadow of the sometimes wildly profitable business of other people's suffering. Margaret Sweatman is a writer of deep emotional insight, and in Lilac Welsh she has created a vivid, complex character caught between warring currents of ambition and familial loyalty. There is a cold fire that burns through this novel." -- Omar El Akkad, author of <i>What Strange Paradise</i> "I was thrilled by The Gunsmith's Daughter, by how cinematic and engrossing it is, what big questions it asks." -- Joan Thomas, author of <i>Five Wives</i> "In this beautifully written and tightly plotted novel, Margaret Sweatman gives us a searing look into ourselves. Lilac Welsh is faced with a moral dilemma. She loves her father but is conflicted about the way he makes his living - he makes guns that kill people. Set in the time of the Vietnam War, Lilac's dilemma is Canada's: we criticize U.S. foreign policy, even while our economic well-being remains entangled in America's. The Gunsmith's Daughter delivers uncomfortable home truths as sharply and poetically as George Bernard Shaw's Arms and the Man." -- Wayne Grady, author of <i>The Good Father</i> "The Gunsmith's Daughter, possessing the forward thrust of a whodunit, makes for compulsive reading and is clearly the work of a seasoned writer who knows what she's doing every step of the way." -- Ian Colford * <i>Atlantic Books Today</i> * "Throughout the novel, dialogue sparkles with authenticity and wit comparable to the novels of Patrick deWitt (The Sisters Bothers, French Exit). Sweatman's unpredictable but convincing snippets of conversation go a long a long way in revealing the characters and their relationships, particularly the complex relationship between Lilac and her father." -- Faith Johnston * <i>Winnipeg Free Press</i> *