It was such a delight to talk to Sharon Bala about her brand new novel GOOD GUYS, a gripping and twisty novel all about the moral ambiguity inherent in international aid—in addition to the moral failures that aren’t ambiguous at all. And the twists I’m talking about aren’t just regarding the riveting plot, but also pertain to what Bala does with perspective, showing how the same narrative might look vastly different from each character’s very different point of view.
We began our conversation by talking about how GOOD GUYS is part of a group of excellent fiction by Asian-Canadian writers who are confronting the realities of international aid and NGOS, and how Bala found her way into writing fiction set in this space. But the book she ultimately chooses as her BOOKSPO pick is something very different indeed, and she tells me about her different experiences reading George Eliot’s MIDDLEMARCH throughout her life, how that book has changed over time, and how what it shares with GOOD GUYS is a sense that no one is only a hero, no one is only a villain, that everybody is a complicated and flawed character with no idea of what the limits of their perspective truly are.
About GOOD GUYS: From the bestselling author of The Boat People comes a page-turning moral drama about money, the dark side of philanthropy, and what happens when you try to change the world for all the wrong reasons.
“The easiest choices are the ones you make for other people.”
Claire Talbot is the publicist at Children of the World, an international aid charity. Morally burnt out after decades working in reputation management, Claire is relieved to finally use her PR skills for good. Too bad the organization is on the verge of bankruptcy. In a last-ditch effort to keep them afloat, Claire arranges for an A-list actress to volunteer at one of their overseas orphanages. When the actress decides to adopt a baby and promises a massive donation, it seems as if Claire has single-handedly saved the day. But after a journalist digs into their operations and reveals a shocking crime, Claire and her colleagues must reckon with their complicity and all the ways their work abroad has harmed the very people they set out to save.
Moving between Children of the World’s headquarters in Toronto and their compound in Central America, Good Guys charts the charity’s rise and fall. Scathing yet compassionate, the novel is a thought-provoking exploration of power, philanthropy, and the lengths we go to for redemption. Emotionally engrossing, tightly paced, and sharply observed, it ultimately asks: Is it possible to do good in an imperfect world?
SHARON BALA’s bestselling debut novel, The Boat People, won the 2019 Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction and the 2020 Newfoundland and Labrador Book Award for Fiction, was a finalist for Canada Reads 2018, the Amazon Canada First Novel Award, the Margaret and John Savage First Book Award, and the Thomas Raddall Atlantic Fiction Award, and was longlisted for the 2019 Aspen Words Literary Prize and the 2020 International Dublin Literary Award. In 2017, Sharon won the Writers’ Trust/McClelland & Stewart Journey Prize for her short story “Butter Tea at Starbucks.” She lives in St. John’s, Newfoundland, where she is currently the Creative Non-Fiction Editor at Riddle Fence.
