On October 22 at 7 p.m., join Lisa Moore and Jack Whalen for the launch of Invisible Prisons, a powerful collaboration between the award-winning author and Whalen. Jack’s life was deeply impacted by his time at a reform school in St. John’s, but with the support of his wife, Glennis, and his daughter, Brittany, he found strength and resilience. Brittany, now a lawyer, is seeking justice on her father’s behalf.

In conversation with Angela Antle, Moore and Whalen will share their moving story of overcoming adversity, focusing on the power of love and perseverance.

This event promises to be an inspiring and insightful evening.

For more information about this event, please click here.

From a review of the book: Invisible Prisons is an extraordinary, empathetic collaboration between the magnificent writer Lisa Moore, best-known for her award-winning fiction, and a man named Jack Whalen, who as a child was held for four years at a reform school for boys in St John’s, where he suffered jaw-dropping abuses and deprivations. Despite the odds stacked against him, he found love on the other side, and managed to turn his life around as a husband and father. His daughter, Brittany, vowed at a young age to become a lawyer so that she could seek justice for him. Today, that is exactly what she is doing—and Jack’s case is part of a lawsuit currently before the courts.

The story has parallels with Unholy Orders by Michael Harris about the Mount Cashel orphanage, and with the many horrific stories about residential schools—all of which expose a paternalistic state causing harm and a larger society looking away. Yet two powerful qualities set this story apart. As much as it is about an abusive system preying on children, it is also a tender tale of love between Jack and his wife Glennis, who saw the good man inside a damaged person and believed in him. And it is written in a novelistic way by the great Lisa Moore, who makes vividly real every moment and character in these pages.

Authors

JACK WHALEN is the son, brother, husband, and father whose story became this book. He divides his time between family homes in Oshawa, Ontario, and St. John’s, Newfoundland. Recently, he can sometimes be found crossing the country in a truck carrying a replica of the cell in which he was once imprisoned, seeking justice for those who endured solitary confinement as children.

LISA MOORE is the author of the bestselling novels Alligator, February, and Caught; the story collections Open and Something for Everyone; and a young adult novel, Flannery. Her books have been finalists for the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, CBC Canada Reads, the Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize, the Scotiabank Giller Prize, and the Man Booker Prize, among many other honours and accolades. Lisa lives in St. John’s, Newfoundland.

Posted: October 16, 2024