Set in the Canadian prairies during the uptight 50s and swinging 60s, The Boy Who Was Saved By Jazz is the coming-of-age story of Robert, a boy who lost his father before he was born and was abandoned by his unstable mother and dead father's family. Robert's father was a soldier, who lingers on the periphery of his young son's life, writing ghostly letters of manly advice, and worming his way into Robert's subconscious as he watches him grow into an angst ridden teenager. When Robert discovers an old pump organ in a derelict farmhouse, he teaches himself to play, falling in love with all forms of music, from classical, to rock-and-roll, to jazz. Robert begins to uncover the secrets of his past: his paternal political grandfather's communist history, his own father's sudden death, the family cover-up surrounding it, and more. Robert learns to embrace his own place in his disjointed family, his budding bisexuality, his Metis identity, his crazy imagination, and his deep connection to music until he can, for the first time, finally feel some sense of belonging.
