Invisible Prisons by Lisa Moore and Jack Whalen

Invisible Prisonsis 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 doingand Jack's case is part of a lawsuit currently before the courts.

The story has parallels withUnholy Ordersby Michael Harris about the Mount Cashel orphanage,and with the many horrific stories about residential schoolsall 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. (From KnopfCanada)

• 54 works of Canadian nonfiction to check out this fall

• 'Justice prevailed': Jack Whalen feeling relief as N.L. removes barrier to abuse lawsuits

Lisa Moore is a Newfoundland-based writer. Her books include February, which won Canada Reads 2013 when it was defended by Trent McClellan; Caught, which was a finalist for the Scotiabank Giller Prize in 2013 and was made into a miniseries for CBC television; the YA novel Flannery and the short story collection Something for Everyone. Something for Everyone was on the longlist for the 2018 Scotiabank Giller Prize.

Other Books by Lisa Moore