Hidden Canada: An Intimate Travelogue reveals a vast, story-filled country where travel author Norman Ravvin showcases unexpected experiences and delights of anecdotal and documented histories, places, and people. Ravvin combines all the best qualities of a research journalist, animated storyteller, sharp-eyed archeologist, and intuitive historian to present seven major chapters showcasing vanished ways of Canadian life and a still observable Canadian present.

The cover artwork shows a brass porthole framing a sailing vessel shouldering its way though a heavy sea...a good image for a book entitled 'Great Stories of the Sea'? You bet! Unfortunately it's totally misleading. A better title would be 'So-So Stories that are mostly about Canadian Coastal life'. Yes, apparently Mr. Ravvin thinks that if a story includes a family digging up clams on the beach, that's enough to qualify it as being a 'Sea Story'. Warning! There are literally stories in this collection that have NOTHING TO DO WITH THE SEA WHATSOEVER! I know, I couldn't believe it either...I don't understand it...maybe it's a Candian thing...Speaking fairly, there are two or three good Sea Stories in this book. You can't argue with Crane's 'Open Boat' and I particularily enjoyed 'The Strength of Men' by Norman Duncan. But all in all this book feels like a cheat. The quality of the edition is generally poor, certainly not worth the price asked, and the content leaves much to be desired as well...Try to find Norton's Anthology of the Sea...at least you'll get what you paid for! I have to say, I'm quite disappointed Mr. Ravvin. You could have at least billed the stories for what they were...'Great Stories of the Sea'? Sheesh!...