The hole show

by Maya Merrick

In 1972 four outcasts meet in Montreal to form a controversial theatre troupe which stages a Halloween bacchanal on Mount Royal called The Hole Show. Hicklin, the collector, leaves Vancouver under traumatic circumstances to live as a bohemian on the streets of a city caught in the midst of political upheaval. Billy, the gender-bending butcher boy, quits the farm and changes his name to Beau. Dahlia is the Westmount ballerina who severs all contact with her previous life to take on the emotionally frigid persona of Dolly. Finally there is Luce, the sassy teenage runaway who is a mystery to them all. Following the critical success of her debut novel, Sextant, Maya Merrick’s The Hole Show is a multi-layered, finely crafted, provocative novel about four characters struggling to cope with their own personal transformations.