Most Popular Books by Brian Doyle

Martin O'Boy's life is not easy. His beloved Granny just died, his pregnant mother and father fight all the time, and his twin, Phil, is completely incapacitated. Martin is the one his mother counts on. But life in Ottawa's Lowertown is not all bad. He has his best friend, Billy Batson, the movies, his cat Cheap and there's the glamorous Buz from next door, a soldier in the war. As the war comes to an end with the bombing of Hiroshima, Ottawa is in a state of turmoil. Returning soldiers, parties, and fights fill the streets. It would all be very exciting for Martin except for one thing. In their endless pursuit of more funds Martin and Billy have joined the church choir — as summer boys. And the organist, Mr. T.D.S. George, is awfully fond of Martin. As the reader knows, though Martin doesn't, this fondness is a dangerous thing.

But Martin, despite his hardships, has a pure soul, Billy's friendship, and even his mother's reliance on him, which help him to deliver a kind of justice to Mr. George, and to heal himself and others. Brave, loving, resourceful Martin O'Boy is another wonderful Brian Doyle creation.

Old Mickey is one hundred and twelve years old. He can't remember what he ate for lunch today, but he can remember every detail of what happened one hundred years ago, when he and his mother ran away from his violent father to take refuge in the hills north of Ottawa.

Brilliantly combining humor and tragedy, Uncle Ronald is one of Brian Doyle's most emotionally powerful novels.

Hubbo O'Driscoll is torn between his poor but fun friends and family and the shallow but rich kids at his school.
Hubbo's first year in high school is off to a bad start as he veers wildly between the lovely Fleurette Featherstone Fitchell and the ever more enticing gang at the exclusive Hi-Y Club. Just then a mysterious benefactor appears and Hubbo gets a new job working for the elegant, elderly, and very rich Miss Collar-Cuff.
An improbable surprise ending completes this wonderfully comic novel, which won the Canadian Library Association Book of the Year Award.

In Up to Low Young Tommy and Baby Bridget, the girl with the trillium shaped eyes, discover that loving and healing and dying are not always what they seem. And they make that discovery with the help of a wonderful cast of characters including Crazy Mickey, drunken Frank, and the Hummer.

Brian Doyle, author of Hey, Dad! and You Can Pick Me Up at Peggy's Cove, spent the summers of his boyhood in the Gatineau Hills, where he has set Up to Low. It is one of his finest novels for young people.

Up to Low was the winner of the 1983 Canadian Literary Association Book of the Year Award.