Words At Large

Benny Cooperman, Howard Engel’s unassuming small-town detective, doesn’t carry a gun or even fight very well. But he’s pretty shrewd and he doesn’t give up easily. That’s fortunate because Memory Book (Penguin), Engel’s 11th Benny Cooperman mystery, is one of the most bizarre cases he (or any other detective) has ever faced.

In 2001 a stroke left author Howard Engel with a condition known as alexia sine agraphia, a condition that allows him to write but not to read. As it turns out “not giving up” is a trait he shares with his fictional detective.

Engel wrote about his painstaking recovery in a memoir called The Man Who Forgot How to Read (HarperCollins). That book is the Book Club* feature this month. In it he describes how he decided to share the condition with his favorite fictional character — Benny Cooperman.

While still struggling to bring his own reading up to Grade 3 level, Engel wrote an entire Cooperman novel.

And so Benny wakes up in hospital with no idea where he is, what happened … or how to read his own notes.

Episode one:

Episode two: Benny’s faulty memory makes solving the mystery even more difficult.

Episode three: The police arrive to see what he remembers and so does an old friend.

Episode four: Benny gets a visit from a mysterious stranger.

Each episode of Between the Covers is between 15 and 17 minutes.

If you missed previous podcasts you can download them at the Between the Covers podcasts. If you’re interested in readings of other Canadian books, check out the Hear A Reading page on the Between the Covers site.