Finalist for the Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour


A funny, boisterous, and deeply moving novel about aging hairstylist Roland’s childhood friendship with Birdy O’Day, whose fevered quest for pop music glory drives them apart


Roland Keener is an aging hairstylist who’s lived and worked in Winnipeg all his life. He’s more or less content with the quiet and predictable days he shares with his partner of twenty-five years, Tony. That is, until he hears that Birdy O’Day—washed-up music icon and Roland’s childhood best friend and first love—is playing his first concert in Winnipeg since fleeing decades earlier.


Holing up with a scrapbook of news clippings about Birdy, Roland recalls his childhood in the ’60s and his friendship with Birdy until the pair became estranged when Birdy left in pursuit of stardom. But now, is Birdy’s imminent return to town a chance for the two of them to finally come to terms with their glorious yet troubled past?


A nostalgic and poignant novel about hero worship, heartbreak, and queer survival, An Evening with Birdy O’Day will remind you that you can never go home again—even if you never left it in the first place.