~48,000 WORDS
©2014
ECW Press

Read reviews on Goodreads & Amazon
 

In this powerful novel of love and family, a doctor named Paris follows a nurse to a country on the brink of civil war. When a confrontation does break out, they are swept up by rebel forces and separated. The nurse, Helen, is pregnant; she escapes, but Paris is left behind, imprisoned by rebels as war rages.

A narrative of brutal power, but also of parental bonds, forgiveness, and identity,The Colonial Hotel recasts for the 21st century the ancient story of Paris, Helen, and Oenone. While the action might be ripped from international headlines, Bennett creates a wholly new take on an age-old tale set in the bleakest aspect of our unstable, yet remarkable, world.

"Unsparing in his depiction of cruelty, brutality and despair, Bennett steers the reader through an exploration of love and grief, the power of storytelling, the pains of parenthood and uncomfortable truths... Jonathan Bennett has cleverly and sensitively described the many types of love tested by war. The result is a rewarding and intensely moving read: deceptively gruelling, given its slim dimensions, but also -- like its heroine -- devastatingly beautiful." - National Post

"...a compelling, lyrical novel of love, suffering and reconciliation." - Winnipeg Free Press

"We are in Graham Greene territory... a solid novel on morality in our not-quite-postcolonial world." - Globe and Mail