Robert Chursinoff
Coming Spring 2027
Spirit Wrestling
STORIES
Nightwood Editions
From the author of The Descendants, Spirit Wrestling is a journey into the world of the misunderstood, the persecuted: exiles, outsiders, radicals fed up with those in power evading accountability. Loathed by church and state, labelled terrorists, targets of assassination, an ethno-religious people forever caught between submission and revolt. Inspired by real characters and events from within Canada's infamous and enigmatic Doukhobor community, these interconnected stories are moving, compelling, and alive with wit. Sweeping across 300 years, they carry readers from Russia and Ukraine, to British Columbia, Greece, New York City, and into the near future. In tracing a people's endurance through generations of persecution, displacement, ostracism, and the turbulent search for utopia, Spirit Wrestling speaks to something achingly universal about freedom, belonging, and the courage to resist.
THE DESCENDANTS
B.C. BESTSELLING NOVEL
2022 | Nightwood Editions
Seven years after a confrontation with bikers in British Columbia's Russian exile Doukhobor community, two former lovers – one a rock star, the other a wounded US Marine – return home to their families broken, and must confront traumas, re-evaluate pacifist beliefs, and deal with a deadly menace once and for all.
–SARA QUIN, New York Times-bestselling author of High School and member of indie-pop duo Tegan and Sara
"...Riveting, poignant, memorable, Chursinoff's
debut will do for the Doukhobors what
Miriam Toews has done for Mennonites."
BOOK TRAILER
SHOUT OUTS
“[Chursinoff has] unearthed a misunderstood but vibrant community and from it created a riveting story of love, prejudice, and hope. A compelling read.”
–DAVID LAYTON, author of The Bird Factory, The Dictator, and Motion Sickness
“[Chursinoff’s] crisp and engaging prose is infused with a quiet beauty that will leave readers spellbound.”
–ZILLA JONES, Journey Prize winner, and author of The World So Wide
Chursinoff's written [The Descendants] with a verve and truthfulness that can only come from the authenticity of lived experience. A multifaceted and tremendous debut."
–ABDUL MALIK, film and tv (CTV, CBC, Superchannel) screenwriter
Chursinoff’s meticulously researched story is a sometimes tender, often gritty tale of how our past impacts the present.”
–JONATHAN KALMAKOFF, writer and historian, doukhobor.org
[The Descendants] is a must-read for anyone who enjoys precise, unflinching and intimate storytelling and wants to know more about what makes British Columbia what it is.”
–KINNIE STARR, Juno Award winning producer, Juno-nominated songwriter, author, and filmmaker
Chursinoff’s characters are gritty, real and complex. Readers will be swept up in this layered debut novel, an exploration of the human spirit and the enduring power of love.”
–AREN X. TULCHINSKY, author of The Five Books of Moses Lapinsky
PRESS
“(A) rich and exciting novel…The Descendants is a captivating story of love, family trauma and loss set against the background of the complex history of BC’s Doukhobors.”
–VALERIE GREEN, BC Bookworld
"A skillful and riveting novel...
The Descendants... is one of the
memorable reads that will linger in the mind
and memory long after the book is
finished and set back upon the shelf."
CBC Books Fall Preview 2022
The Tyee interview regarding Government
apology to Doukhobors
–Midwest Book Review
"I think it’s a remarkable achievement, one that deserves a wide range of readers... This is a carefully crafted book, about love... Chursinoff writes with insights born of experience and inquiry, and with extraordinary compassion... I look forward to Robert Chursinoff’s next book.”
The Tyee recommends holiday reads
"There is so much substance to this novel... historical divides in the Doukhobor community, addiction, intergenerational trauma, physical disability, but also love and the musicality of human existence."
–LEESA DEAN, Articulate Magazine
–W.H. (WILLIAM) NEW, The British Columbia Review
Debbie Bateman talks to Robert Chursinoff about his innovative novel for The Artisinal Writer
ABOUT ME
I was born and raised in the Doukhobor community of southeastern British Columbia. This ethno-religious community forms the inspiration for the forthcoming Spirit Wrestlers in Spring 2027, as well as for my debut novel The Descendants. I also draw inspiration from my years spent drumming for Grammy-nominated duo Tegan and Sara, Australian pop star Ben Lee, the Be Good Tanyas, Juno-nominated performer Kinnie Starr, the Belle Game and many others. My writing has been published in the literary journal Blank Spaces, the anthology Just Words Volume 4, and online in Vice, Nowhere Magazine, Upworthy and Matador Network. As a scriptwriter, I've worked on dozens of Red Bull Media House documentaries and series. I live in Vancouver, BC, on the traditional, unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh Coast Salish peoples with my wife, daughter, and cat.