Told from the point of view of an Italian Canadian child, The Wheel Keeper centres on the grandmother’s forced emigration from Italy as a young unwed mother, and the building of a hydroelectric dam which will flood the British Columbia village in which the story is set.

Robert Pepper-Smith was born in Revelstoke, BC. He currently lives on a farm in the Cinnabar valley with his wife Anna and teaches philosophy at Vancouver Island University. His childhood in Revelstoke and his experience as a volunteer paramedic with the NGO Alianza in Guatemala have inspired this work. The Wheel Keeper (2002) was his first full-length work of fiction. In September 2011, NeWest released Robert's second novella, House of Spells. The Orchard Keepers, a collection of these two books with a third, Sanctuary, which finishes the series, was released in Spring 2017.

Robert Pepper-Smith's profile page