Ravenscrag: A Novel weaves retro science fiction with intimate autobiography to explore memory, trauma, and the power of stories to heal. Moving between McGill University in 1962 and 2012, the narrator Alain Farah lives in two eras yet feels unsettled in both.
On campus, a psychiatrist conducts dangerous and unethical experiments on vulnerable patients. The narrator’s uncle, Nab Safi, holds crucial knowledge about what is happening, but his story risks being lost forever. As the narrator searches for the truth, time, place, and memory begin to collide.
From a mother in a Lebanese neighbourhood who wagers her son in a desperate game of dice, to resurrected dinosaurs and a mysterious gun that decides fates, the novel blends the surreal with the deeply personal. A tattered photograph and an eerie swimming pool lead to Ravenscrag, a gothic manor with 36 shadowy chambers and disturbing secrets.
Both a haunting narrative and a reflection on resilience, Ravenscrag shows how literature can become a remedy, turning fragmented memories and hidden histories into a story of survival.
Themes and features
- Dual timelines set in 1962 and 2012 Montreal
- Unethical psychiatric experiments and hidden histories
- Blend of science fiction, gothic elements, and memoir
- Exploration of family, memory, and storytelling as survival