Macalister, or Dying in the Dark

David E. Kemp is a professor of drama at Queen’s University and the
author of The Pleasures and Treasures of the United Kingdom.

This verse drama by Douglas LePan, two-time winner of the Governor
General’s Award, tells the story of John Kenneth Macalister, a
brilliant young Canadian who, in June 1943, volunteered to be parachuted
into France as a secret agent. Macalister was picked up by the Gestapo,
imprisoned, tortured, and executed at Buchenwald. His story is largely
told in the form of a dialogue with the author, whose life at first was
remarkably similar to Macalister’s. To read this moving and poetic
tribute to human courage at one sitting is to undergo a deep catharsis.
Despite the harrowing and often-horrific subject matter, the reader is
ultimately left with a feeling not of depression but of elation.