Sander's Parachute, Unimog, Combine, Spy Plane, and Guest

Though he might look at his shoes when he talks and has a bit of a stutter, Sander is one of the biggest characters you'll ever meet.

Sander's Parachute, Unimog, Combine, Spy Plane, and Guest is a collection of delightful stories centered on Sander, short for Aleksander, the narrator's northerly neighbour. Whether he's establishing a quasi-greenhouse for the locals, or building a bi-plane spy plane by hand using auction and thrift store finds, Sander has no shortage of agricultural and mechanical knowledge, like any hardworking Northern farmer worth his salt, and it always comes in handy.

As the landscape of the Canadian North-literally and metaphorically-changes before him, Sander finds himself faced with a sense of loss as farms grow larger and families move away, and the hard-won homesteads of the past become homes to wild animal tenants. But the spirit of the rough-and-tumble North lives on in Sander, he remains a pilgrim from another time, baffling and charming and devoted to the betterment of anyone in his orbit.

Though he might not, strictly speaking, have a way with women, he will brush shoulders with romance more than once. And though he is not, strictly speaking, the most forthcoming, he is one of the most cherished and best-loved neighbours any of the locals could have asked for.