Jacob McArthur Mooney has built a reputation as one of Canada’s most compelling poets. So his debut novel has been eagerly anticipated. The Northern is both a coming-of-age story and a road trip through a bygone era of sports history. Set in 1952 it follows a man and two boys working as agents for an upstart Mormon baseball card company as they journey across Western Ontario trying to persuade players from the Northern League, at the lowest level of professional baseball, to sign contracts so the company can use their images should they ever hit the big time. Join Jacob and Red as they draw parallels between big business, sport, and perceptions of youth and masculinity in the 1950s and today.