Twenty-Six
Leo McKay, Jr.
 Set in the fictional town of Albion Mines, Nova Scotia, the novel takes place against the backdrop of a coal mine explosion that kills twenty-six miners, loosely based on the real-life Westray Mine explosion of 1992. Like the real-life incident, the novel's Eastyard mine disaster has themes of government corruption and the greed of the mine operator. The story primarily revolves around the family of Ennis Burrows, a former union organizer. His sons, Ziv - a college drop-out now working at the local Zellers - and Arvel, a miner who has followed in his father's footsteps. Their stories and those of other supporting characters unfold from the novel's beginning with the mine explosion, and working backward to show how the tragedy has fundamentally changed each of their lives.