Megan Gail Coles's Small Game Hunting at the Local Coward Gun Club is a tough love letter to Newfoundland

Megan Gail Coles is an author from Savage Cove, N.L. Her debut novel, Small Game Hunting at the Local Coward Gun Club, revolves around a cast of flawed characters who are implicated in each other's hopes, dreams and pains as they try to survive harsh economic times in the province. 

Coles talked to The Next Chapter about why she wrote Small Game Hunting at the Local Coward Gun Club.

"My book is very much about power imbalance. It is about people who have power and people who do not, and why. The novel is set in a restaurant called the Hazel in downtown St. John's on Duckworth Street. It takes place over the course of one day in February. I set a hard story in the hardest part of the year. 

"I know there will be people who are uncomfortable with the tone of the novel because it is so full on. It is unrelenting at times by design. There have been times when I have tried to approach this same discussion and I have been ignored. It seemed to me that the only way to get people to wake up was to actually stage the book inside of a living nightmare. But I urge everyone to be brave enough to move through it."

Megan Gail Coles's comments have been edited for length and clarity.