Published on April 17, 2013

Moose Jaw Times Herald

Lisa Goudy

Local author and poet Robert Currie said he hopes his new book, Living with the Hawk, will inspire compassion in readers.

“I think reading can really increase a person’s empathy for others -- so empathy, in this case, for people who are being mistreated through bullying and racism and misogyny,” said Currie. “I think we learn through our experiences, but we can also experience things quite directly through reading and learn from those as well.”

The official book launch and signing will take place on Tuesday at the Moose Jaw Public Library auditorium at 7:30 p.m. The book will be available for purchase. It is also available at Post Horizon Booksellers on High Street West.

The book, published by Thistledown Press, is about Blair Russell, a university student who recalls the events that happened to him and his family when he was in Grade 9. He and his older brother, Blake, are sons of an Anglican priest.

They started playing football in high school and the two brothers started moving in different friend circles. One circle dealt with parties, alcohol, bullying younger players and abuse. Blair and Blake begin to grow apart. When Blair witnesses a troubling occurrence it changes the brotherly bond and the Russell family forever.

“The inspiration for the book was a poem written by one of my English students when I was a high school English teacher at Central Collegiate," said Currie. “He had witnessed something that really troubled him and wrote a poem about it and I read the poem and was really troubled about it. It sort of festered away for years before I decided what to do with it, which was writing this book.”