In a startling exercise of reorientation, John Ralston Saul excavates Canadian myths—real, false, and denied—and reconciles them with the reality of today's politics, culture and economics. By building his reflections on the words of Canadian novelists, poets, historians, songwriters, philosophers, painters and most creative political figures over the centuries, Saul uncovers the startling shape of the Canadian experiment. With a balance of realism and optimism he convinces us that a country which is first an idea of a country is not a theoretical or utopian idea.