The Atoner of Alberni

Talking fish, telekinesis and a failed attempt to levitate the Port Alberni pulpmill to a less-ecologically-damaging location play a role by the third generation of a family of west coast industrialists.

Henry Cox, a remittance man from England soon realizes that his dream of market gardening on an estate in the planned resort community of Clo-oose on the west coast of Vancouver Island makes little sense and that the real opportunity is in the vast surrounding forests.

In Ed Cepka’s debut novel, “The Levitationist,” obsession, greed and ruthlessness make Henry Cox a rich man. His grandson Larry, sent to work in the family pulpmill, wants no part of it and decamps to India to search for a more exalted level of being. Summoned back as the sole heir, he attempts to make amends for the moral and environmental crimes of his grandfather in this darkly comedic novel.

About the author

Edward Cepka grew up in Port Alberni when it was a thriving MacMillan and Bloedel company town—prosperous, industrious, and steeped in the belief that good times would last forever. Fascinated by the town’s layered history—the contrasts between working-class grit, lingering colonial wealth, and the shadow of the residential school—he began exploring its stories early on. Summers spent in the mills and forests deepened his understanding of the place. After studying English and Architecture at UBC, Cepka watched from afar as the mills closed and the town faded. What began as a pioneer saga evolved into a darkly comic meditation on colonization, environmental loss, and the ghosts of prosperity past.