Searching for Terry Punchout

Tyler Hellard
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Searching for Terry Punchout

Tyler Hellard
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CANADIAN200 PAGESENGLISH

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*Valid July 3, 2026 - July 19, 2026 at Canadian stores, while quantities last. Not valid on previous purchases or in conjunction with other offers.

Overall rating: 4.0 / 5 from 1 reviews.

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Hockey and Family Drama; the greatest combo

"Adam is trying to become a great sportswriter but he’s flailing. He decides to do a piece on Terry Punchout, one of the greatest hockey goons in the sport, and just so happens to be Adam’s father. Adam heads to Nova Scotia, to rekindle friendships, love and reconnect with his estranged father. I read this because it was one of the CBC Canada Reads choices for 2026. I hadn’t heard of this book prior to it being chosen for the debate. It’s my choice to win it I think. It really captures the heart of Eastern Canada in such a charming way. As a Canadian, hockey is important to us. It brings people together and is something we get used to just being on all the time and being surrounded by. This novel in particularly reminds me of a Canadian Beartown. It’s filled with heart and drama, and relatable characters. It’s a little bit shorter, so we don’t get as much character development with some of the side characters, but the focus is very much on Adam and Terry. They reflect on the past and try to decide what is best for their futures. I could picture and feel each scene, because it felt so real. A lovely short read about hockey, and how it can tear families apart but also bring them together."

Wes u. (4/5)

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  • Published date: Oct 01, 2018
  • Language: English
  • No. of Pages: 200
  • Publisher: Invisible Publishing
  • ISBN: 9781988784106
  • Dimensions: 5.0" W x 0.5" L x 8.0" H

“There just aren’t enough good books that feature hockey. This is a good, funny and touching book that I really enjoyed reading.”—Nerd Girl Loves Books

"An assured debut, wryly funny."Literary Review of Canada

"A story of a father, a son and hockey that set[s] heart and mind reeling."—Chris Benjamin, Atlantic Books Today

"Along with hockey, this book has good characters, funny lines, a little romance, and a touching story."—Consumed By Ink

“When a story contains hockey, one last chance for redemption, a trip back home and some touching family moments, it is a story that is worth reading. All of these and more are contained in Tyler Hellard’s excellent debut novel.”—The Guy Who Reviews Sports Books

"It doesn't take much to get me to read a novel featuring hockey and a guy named Terry, but Tyler Hellard's stellar debut hit me like an errant stick to the head. A big story set in a small town, by turns funny and sad, moving and melancholy, Searching for Terry Punchout stays with you long after the final buzzer. Masterful."—Terry Fallis, two-time winner of the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour

Searching for Terry Punchout is a funny, profane, charming romp of a novel about hockey culture in small-town Canada, which would be enough to recommend it on its own. But it’s also an engaging and insightful look at the way men try and mostly fail to be honest and emotional in their relationships with other men, and that makes it a must-read.”—Chris Turner, author of The Patch and The Geography of Hope

"Tyler Hellard has created a thoughtful, warm-hearted, and deeply human sports tale, one that will resonate with any reader who has wondered if you can ever really go home again. Searching For Terry Punchout is a vivid portrait of small town hockey life, of fathers and sons, of feeling left behind and leaving things behind, of clinging to glory and grasping for meaning. With this strong debut, Hellard makes sense of what home really means, and in doing so reveals how close we actually are to the people and places that can often feel so far away."—Stacey May Fowles, author of Baseball Life Advice

Searching for Terry Punchout does just what its title promises – packs a punch. Readers will be knocked out by Hellard’s dry and bittersweet humour as protagonist Adam attempts to navigate a return to the ‘charming’ small-town and father he bid adios to years ago. Hilarious and heartbreaking – an excellent debut novel.”—Theanna Bischoff, author of Cleavage, Swallow, and Left

“Tyler Hellard’s Searching for Terry Punchout is utterly complete and heartbreakingly authentic. If all the rinks in small-town Canada and the game of hockey itself were to suddenly disappear from the earth they could be reconstructed from the blueprint that is this excellent novel. And if you know the game at all at its grass roots, you’ll recognize characters from these pages and never look at them the same way again.”—Gare Joyce, author of The CodeThe Black Ace and Every Spring a Parade

"Funny, quirky, sad, and sweet. Searching for Terry Punchout is a story of friendship and family, of hockey heroes and small-town hangovers, of Zamboni lessons, and thrift store beauty queens. Highly recommended!"—Will Ferguson, author of The Shoe on the Roof

Tyler Hellard grew up in Prince Edward Island, graduated from St. Francis Xavier University and now lives in Calgary with his wife and kids, where he writes commercial copy, technology criticism and essays. His non-fiction has appeared in THIS Magazine, The Walrus, and on CBC Radio. Before finally quitting hockey at 18, he was pretty bad at it.

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