A one-legged boy, Terry Fox, sets himself the task of running a marathon a day across the length of Canada, the second-largest country in the world, in aid of cancer research, because the children are crying with pain in the cancer wards and somewhere the hurting must stop.

Together this novel and the accompanying journal and notebook comprise the nineteenth installment in an ongoing novel-writing project in which the author is exploring the concept of form and meaning in the novel, and of the novel as a form of expression in the 21st century. All of the accompanying journals and notebooks, as well as more information on the project itself, are available on the author's website, www.johnpassfield.ca.

The Making of Somewhere the Hurting Must Stop

This journal records the author's reflections on the process of the crafting of the novel as it evolved through the stages of planning, writing, editing and polishing. It constitutes an effort to be as conscious as possible of the process whereby the single idea that suggested the topic of the novel was expanded into a complex work of art. Topics range from the nuts and bolts of novel-building to the nature of the novel as an art form.

Planning Somewhere the Hurting Must Stop

During the writing of the novel the author kept a handwritten notebook which records the day-to-day development of the novel as it found its shape and style. The notebook, now in print form, reveals how a vast cluster of thoughts was sifted, selected, structured and polished into novel form.