Chatham-born author Ray Robertson likes to tell a story in his novels that makes his readers ponder their own lives.
He’s hit the mark again with Estates Large and Small.
In the novel, Phil Cooper is a secondhand bookstore owner who, forced to close his beloved Queen Street store in Toronto due to an unaffordable rent increase, transitions to an online book business out of his home.
Smoking too much pot and immersing himself in late-night sessions of Grateful Dead music, Phil decides it is time to take stock in his life by studying 2,500 years of Western philosophy.
He meets Caroline, an ex-postal worker and fellow book lover with terminal cancer, who decides to join him in his quest for knowledge, which soon becomes a romantic relationship.
“I don’t really write loves stories, but I found that I was and I was kind of tickled,” Robertson said.
He said Phil and Caroline sort of clicked when they got in the same room together.
Their relationship takes an interesting twist when Caroline shares with Phil her plans on ending her life on her own terms.
“The only purpose of death. . . is to help you live a better life,” Robertson said.
Having delved into the topic of death in both fiction and non-fiction books, Robertson said the thing about novels is the freedom to put ideas into action and give them zest, which is more difficult to do with non-fiction.
He said how Caroline approaches euthanasia is just one take on it.
“It’s not easy, but I think it’s worth exploring.”
Robertson, who has written 14 books, said Estates Large and Small seems to be getting more of a reaction than most of his work.
He believes this attention is due to the various bullet points discussed, including The Grateful Dead, cannabis, philosophy, shuttered bookstores, the pandemic and euthanasia.
Robertson began writing Estates Large and Small prior to the COVID-19 pandemic being declared and the resulting lockdown. He had a choice to either continue with a story set in pre-COVID times or rework it to include aspects of the pandemic.
As time when on, Robertson thought it was a perfect time to write the book during the lockdown “because it’s kind of a metaphor for all of us.
“I think during (the pandemic), a lot of people did say, ‘Geez, you know, virtually isn’t enough,’” he added.
“Doing a Zoom birthday party was kind of funky at first then, after a while, ‘You know what? This is kind of sterile, kind of hollow,’” Robertson said. “Maybe it reminded some people the importance of people connection.”
He said Phil, who is a loner, begins to realize he misses the social aspects of his shop and the different characters who came in to browse.
Joking that he was practicing social distancing long before the government told him to, Robertson ponders, “What maybe did we not appreciate or maybe perhaps we took for granted before (COVID)?”
Robertson will be in Chatham on Sept. 17 to launch Estates Large and Small with a reading, book-signing and question-and-answer session at Turns and Tales at 213 King St. W., beginning at 2 pm
Noting he wasn’t able to promote his last few books in person due to the pandemic, Robertson said he’s looking forward to getting in a room full of people to discuss his new novel.
“I don’t think I always felt quite as appreciative as I do now,” he said. “It’s like anything, you appreciate it more when you lose it.”
Estates Large and Small officially goes on sale Aug. 16, but is already starting to arrive in bookstores, according to Windsor-based book publisher Biblioasis.