The Republic of Nothing: Reader's Guide Edition

by Lesley Choyce

Winner, Dartmouth Book Award
Shortlisted, Atlantic Booksellers Choice Award

A small Canadian island declares its independence to the world and benign anarchy reigns. A god-like ocean deposits many a thing, yet it also takes away. The 1960s blaze off shore and draw the island's inhabitants into politics, the Vietnam War, and the peace movement.

Sound impossible? Not on Whalebone Island, AKA the Republic of Nothing. Where else...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0864924933
• ISBN13: 9780864924933
• Release Date: February 2007
• Publisher: Goose Lane Editions
• Length: 382 Pages
• Weight: 1.04 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.6" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

Great reading

This was the best book I've read in a long time. I found it by googling Neil Peart - I've read everything he has written, but always looking for more. He wrote the afterword for this book - and it was well-written. The book held my interest and took me back to the 60's.

The Republic of Nothing is a quirky yet compelling drama where anything and everything can happen

Winner of the Dartmouth Book Award, The Republic of Nothing is a novel set in the 1960's on Whalebone Island, a.k.a. "The Republic of Nothing", a small dot of land off the coast of Nova Scotia that dares to declare its independence to the world. As the island's inhabitants become increasingly drawn into the turbulent politics of the day including the Vietnam War and the peace movement, an unexpected individual steps forward to society's rescue. Originally published in 1994, now in a new "Reader's Guide" edition featuring an afterword by Rush drummer and lyricist Neil Peart, The Republic of Nothing is a quirky yet compelling drama where anything and everything can happen, even as anarchy becomes increasingly prevalent.

Absolutely brilliant!

This book is, without a doubt, the best book I have read to date. Lesley Choyce does fantastic work with this story. This novel evokes every emotion - humor, excitement, anger, resentment, love, worry, jealousy - and does so in a natural, comfortable way. I can't give this book enough praise. Everyone should read it and hopefully enjoy it as much as I did.Oh, and Alberta English 30-1 students, it's on your reading list and is probably the most fun choice [Choyce!]on the list.

Not what I expected!

This book has to be the most unlikely success story!! If you go to school, you know that the books the teachers give you to read are generally either really old or really boring. I am suprised to say that this book is neither.The book is a very vivid depiction of what it is like to seek independence from your family, and even your country. This books about a family that live on a secluded island off Nova Scotia, they call this island "The Republic of Nothing." They don't want to be a nation of anyone elses, they want to be on their own with no government. This book starts off as a book about an Utopian island, and that it becomes about one family, mainly the main character, trying to find their way. It has family struggles, committment, romance, comedy, politics, etc etc. This is definitly a book for everyone from a dreamer to a succeeder.

A Great Book

We had to do this book in my grade 12 english class. Unlike most school books, whcih are often boring and tedious, this one kept us interested and we therefor did good on the tests :)I recommend it.