EDDY BOUDEL TAN. (Thomas Boudel Tan Photo) — EDDY BOUDEL TAN. *(Thomas Boudel Tan Photo)*

EDDY BOUDEL TAN
Diverse Voices and Provocative Perspectives

West End author and self-proclaimed bon vivant Eddy Boudel Tan’s first novel, After Elias has just been released by Dundurn Press and his second, The Rebellious Tide is scheduled for publication next year. This busy author’s works depict a world much like our own — the heroes are flawed, truth is distorted, and there is as much hope as there is heartbreak.

As a queer, second-generation Asian Canadian, Eddy celebrates diverse voices and provocative perspectives and champions stronger LGBTQ+ representation in the arts. When he isn't plotting his next story or adventure abroad, he served, until the current pandemic paused such an initiative, home-cooked meals to those living on the streets as the cofounder of the Sidewalk Supper Project..

Living with his husband Thomas in a book-filled apartment near English Bay, Eddy says they “love to host dinner parties, take runs along the beach, and plot micro-revolutions.”

His most valued form of education is travel. He has visited over thirty countries since three perspective-altering weeks building houses in El Salvador. Subsequent journeys have taken him from subterranean caves in Iceland to the tops of volcanoes in Indonesia.

Besides being an enthusiastic supporter of Vancouver's independent dining scene, Eddy feels most at home in a museum, behind a book, by the ocean, hosting a get-together, or “dancing questionably” at a live show. He works in marketing and advertising, while pursuing his main passion as a novelist.

In After Elias, when the airplane piloted by Elias Santos crashes one week before his wedding day, Coen Caraway loses the man he loves and the illusion of happiness he has worked so hard to create. The only thing Elias leaves behind is a recording of his final words, and Coen is baffled by the cryptic message.

Numb with grief, he takes refuge on the Mexican island that was meant to host their wedding. But as fragments of the past come to the surface in the aftermath of the tragedy, Coen is forced to question everything he thought he knew about Elias and their life together. Beneath his flawed memory lies the truth about Elias — and himself.

From the damp concrete of Vancouver to the spoiled shores of Mexico, After Elias braids the past with the present to tell a story of doubt, regret, and the fear of losing everything.

Of his writing, Eddy says: ”I want people to feel things that are explosive and unexpected, to find new ways of seeing the familiar."

In The Rebellious Tide, to be published next year, the protagonist Sebastien’s search for his father leads him to a ship with a dangerous secret.

Sebastien has heard only stories about his father, a mysterious sailor who abandoned his mother thirty years ago with nothing but a newborn baby. But when his mother dies after a lifetime of struggle, he becomes obsessed with finding an explanation — perhaps even revenge.

The father he’s never met is Kostas, the commanding officer of a luxury liner sailing the Mediterranean. Posing as a member of the ship’s crew, Sebastien stalks his unwitting father in search of answers to why he disappeared so many years ago.

After a public assault triggers outrage among the ship’s crew, Sebastien finds himself entangled in a revolt against the oppressive ruling class of officers. As the clash escalates between the powerful and the powerless, Sebastien uncovers something his father has hidden deep within the belly of the ship — a disturbing secret that would force him to confront everything he’s always wondered and feared about his own identity.

The Rebellious Tide is a story about anger and blame, examining the tension between the history we're born with and the history we write for ourselves.

For updates on Eddy’s work follow him on Twitter (@eddyautomatic) or visit his website at eddyboudeltan.com.

After Elias is currently available at Indigo Books on Robson and Little Sister’s Book & Art Emporium on Davie (which just happens to be featured in The West End Journal’s “Business Spotlight” this month.