National Network for Equitable Library Service

Meet Frederick Madrigal: the seventh son of a struggling woman on welfare who already had three sets of male twins spaced two years apart. A one-time child prodigy, Frederick was the subject of the benevolent index finger of God. While his older brothers ran wild, the sensitive and musically gifted Frederick began to sneak out of the house to sing for spare change in front of city bars and nightclubs, his repertoire learned from his mother's secret midnight singing. Through the intervention of a number of well intentioned benefactors, he ends up in a church choir, and from there, at the age of twelve, is drafted into a choir school in Toronto. He's happy to go, and leaves his mother and brothers behind without a thought. But just after his eighteenth birthday, in public, Everything Crashes Down, and in another miraculous escape, he chooses against his musical destiny. In mid-life, Frederick is deliverer of Canada Post mail; teacher of Voice; keeper of secrets; caretaker of his demented mother; lousy with dates. Still, it appears that everything is more or less satisfactory and under control ... until God once again starts pointing- but this time He seems a little cranky. The Madrigal is a work of literary fiction that explores the experience of solitude, the meaning of extraordinary talent, and the role of memory throughout our lives. Rather than a coming of age story, it is a "coming to terms story," as Frederick must let go of the unfulfilled expectations of his childhood and find deliverance from the tragic end-of-childhood events he believes he carries responsibility for. In doing so, Frederick brings a unique twist to a timeless journey of self-forgiveness and relationships with others.