Deep Sea Feline takes place in the oasis of Algonquin Park, Toronto and even the bustling streets of Paris. A whimsical romp through an imagined world of otherworldly creatures, musicians, opera singers and painters who are tasked with saving a city and restoring the equilibrium of life.
Charlie Potichny, a failing musician, lost his mother at a young age. Twenty years after her death, a mysterious creature from another world visits him through one of her renowned paintings, gifting him with music that will turn his life and musical career upside down. As Charlie's life changes, his best friend Greg, a hedonistic opera singer, sinks into a rut of depression and drug abuse as his marriage falls apart. It slowly emerges that in passing off the mysterious creature's work as his own, Charlie has upset the power balance between two ancient gods. To restore equilibrium and save their city, a colourful cast of neurotic artists and musicians must face their darkest fears, stage an epic opera and navigate the strange and wondrous realms of the ancient gods.
Inspired by novels such as Haruki Murakami's Hardboiled-Wonderland and the End of the World, Jonathan Lethem's Chronic City, and Emily St. John Mandel's Station Eleven, Deep Sea Feline is an urban fantasy of epic proportions that transforms the city of Toronto into a playground of magic realism and transports readers to the boulevards of Paris, the mountains of Nepal and the forests of Algonquin Park.
Dave Hurlow is a Toronto-based musician, writer and educator. He was a founding member of the Juno nominated rock band The Darcys, and currently releases music as Decafwolf. A graduate of King's College University in Halifax, his previous publications include the short story collection, Hate Letters from Buddhists (Steel Bananas Press, 2014), as well as articles on literature and music for NOW and The Ex-Puritan magazine. He also develops and facilitates creative writing and music programs for Story Planet, and is currently training to become a teacher. Deep Sea Feline is his first novel.
Learn more at davehurlow.com Deep Sea Feline is mesmerizing and exhilarating. It sneaks into your psyche and sticks withyou throughout the day, the month, the year... just like a great song you just cannot get out ofyour head.
-Jennifer Morrison, filmmaker/actor/Jen's Bookshelf Serious fun. Loved it. Dave Hurlow is one of those rare writers who can dig deep into the bag of weird but still somehow engineer a brilliant plot with lovable characters. A bright crackling sparkler of a mind.
-Charles Spearin, musician (Do Make Say Think, Broken Social Scene)
"Hurlow's written one hell of a book. It's weird, wild, funny, thrilling, fun, deep, operatic. I just don't get what he has against birds."–Morgan Murray, author of Dirty Birds Deep Sea Feline is a wild bag of an opera, full of digital piano tracks, art gallery visits, and musicians on tour in mid-life. There's a train running through a Manitoba landscape -- a mysterious connection between science and art. Dave Hurlow pierces the membrane that separates this world from another world that runs under it: a lake of ice and, below, a world where mothers depart, friends question life choices while still attempting to reach a truth, through both figurative and sonic art. You might have to be on ketamine to read Hurlow correctly, or maybe just a long sleepless night on Nyquil, but you'll learn how to live inside a painting and a piece of music. Deep Sea Feline is funny, adventurous, and a break from the reality we know as the normy 9 to 5 – everyone will agree the more interesting hours in life usually occur between six in the evening and eight the next morning.
-Michael Winter, author of The Death of Donna Whalen and Minister Without Portfolio In a Toronto of the not-too-distant future, robotic pets have replaced cats and dogs, birds haveturned into Hitchcockian homicidal maniacs, and potholes have become portals to a
