8 x 10

• Michael Turner
• Doubleday Canada, 2009
• Hardcover, 164 pages
• 9780385665933

Shockingly original and intensely intelligent, 8 × 10 is a series of snapshots of a world torn apart by war and migration.

Fearless in form, Michael Turner’s 8 × 10 casts aside traditional narrative structure and characterization to delve deeper into the issues gnawing at today’s global society. Through a sequence of possibly intertwined events, Turner creates a challenging portrait of our modern age, drawing solely on the actions of people rather than their appearance — whether advertising executives or soldiers, tailors or doctors — they fall in love, have children, fight in wars, and flee their homes. In 8 × 10 there are no names, no racial or ethnic characteristics, and only a vague sense of time. Turner’s characters, familiar yet implacable, are both no one and everyone.