The Projectionist by Michael Helm

A man of failing reputation, Toss Raymond lives alone by the South Saskatchewan River, near the drought-ruined farm town of Mayford. It’s the summer of 1988, a year since Toss’s marriage went south, and he made a public spectacle of himself by thrashing the neighbour who he wrongly thought had cuckolded him. Now, as he finishes what might be his last year as a high school teacher and the school board gathers grounds for his dismissal, Toss has taken up with two newcomers in town, and neither association is likely to help him appear any more upright.

Here in his “summer of sobering first anniversaries,” in a place under siege from both drought and his friend Dewey’s dark inventions, Toss must decide what he will remain true to: his troublesome desire to follow his heart and his imagination, or his idea of “home” — unhistoried, dying, and likely to leave no trace.

A dense, rich, and entirely rewarding novel, The Projectionist is original, moving, and surprisingly funny.