Just Let Me Look at You

Praise

Shortlisted for the 2019 RBC Taylor Prize

Shortlisted for the 2019 BC Book Prize – Hubert Evans Non-Fiction Prize

Shortlisted for the 2019 BC Book Prize – Roderick Haig-Brown Regional Prize

“Under Gaston’s quiet prose lies an ocean of pain and hard truths. Unsentimental and yet deeply poignant, his memoir will resonate with anyone who wanted more from a father than he could give.” —Trevor Cole

“This book isn’t just for fathers, sons or those who fish…as a mother and daughter who does not fish, I nonetheless related to Bill’s longing to understand the person who had raised him and helped shape his world view. A beautifully written memoir about the complex layers that exist between parent and child and the drive to find peace with our childhood ghosts.” —Cea Sunrise Person, author of North of Normal

“I was heartbroken in the first five pages. Bill Gaston kicks and punches holes in the walls of time and recounts the battle between father and son, a battle that defines us whether we like it or not. For everyone who fights ghosts and knows they’re never going to win, but keeps trying.” —Tom Wilson, author of Beautiful Scars

“Bill Gaston’s unflinching courage shines through in his latest memoir, planting him firmly alongside other such top-shelf soul searchers as Mary Karr, David Adams Richards and Nick Flynn. Heartbreaking, hilarious and admittedly haunting, Just Let Me Look at You is a timely and timeless reclamation story, poignant and auspicious, written with heart.” —Joel Thomas Hynes, author of We’ll All Be Burnt in Our Beds Some Night