In the Place of Last Things is Michael Helm’s sophomore effort, arriving seven years after his Giller-nominated novel, The Projectionist. His new novel radiates out from Russ Littlebury and his relationship with his dying father, Mike. A legendary scrapper in his heyday until he found Jesus, Mike appears to have entered life as a lion and is soon to leave it a lamb. Russ, whose own proclivity for violence has a tendency to burst forth unexpectedly from his impassive surface, can only speculate about the now dormant side of his father’s personality that has so clearly planted its legacy in himself. Read more…