[The Mangan Inheritance] is mined from very dark depths, and written with sustained intensity. There are echoes and resonances from Moore's earlier fiction, but these are part of a process of continuation rather than repetition. Jamie Mangan, 36, is a Canadian of Irish descent, a failed poet, ex-newspaper reporter and part-time correspondent for the CBC in New York. His American wife, Beatrice Abbot, star of stage and screen, uses her vast income to manipulate people. When she leaves Mangan for another man, he tells himself ruefully that Beatrice is "one of the all-American winners. And if she ditches you, it's because you're a loser. A Canadian loser." A marital paradigm of U.S.-Canada relations. (p. 46)

Nearly 2 years after he wrote of Ginger Coffey's experiences as a proofreader for the Montreal Gazette, Moore returns to the offices of that newspaper. Jamie's father is the managing editor…. There is an...