Years after retiring from his 35-year newspaper reporting career, Bruce McLean published his debut novel The Manana Treehouse (Thistledown $20) about an aging couple coming to terms with Alzheimer's disease. It is inspired by McLean's memory of his late wife who spent the last seven years of her life with Alzheimer's. The novel's final lines are poingant: "Yesterday has vanished and any thoughts of tomorrow are out of the question. It's today and we're getting somewhere with it."

The Manana Treehouse (Thistledown 2020) $20 9781771872058

[BCBW 2020]