Long-listed for the 2022 Leacock Medal for Humour When King Priam's pregnant daughter was fleeing the sack of Troy, Stan was there. When Jesus of Nazareth was beaten and crucified, Stan was there - one cross over. Stan has been a Hittite warrior, a Roman legionnaire, a mercenary for the caravans of the Silk Road and a Great War German grunt. He’s been a toymaker in a time of plague, a reluctant rebel in the Peasants' Revolt of 1381, and an information peddler in the cabarets of post-war Berlin. Stan doesn't die, and he doesn't know why. And now he's being investigated for a horrific crime. As Stan tells his story, from his origins as an Anatolian sheep farmer to his custody in a Toronto police interview room, he brings a wry, anachronistic perspective to three thousand years of Eurasian history. Call Me Stan is the story of a man endlessly struggling to adjust as the world keeps changing around him. It is a Biblical epic from the bleachers, a gender fluid operatic love quadrangle, and a touching exploration of what it is to outlive everyone you love. Or almost everyone. Praise for past work: “Kevin Wilson’s remarkable novel is smart, funny, unpredictable and engaging. Imbued with insights on family, identity, relationships and music, An Idea About My Dead Uncle brims with suspense and adventure, intriguing characters and fine storytelling.“ —Cora Siré, author of Behold Things Beautiful   “Kevin Wilson turns the usual quest-for-identity tale on its head in this bold and compelling novel of a young man struggling with ambivalence towards his ethnic heritage and the traumas of family dysfunction. The story begins with beguiling lightness and irony, swerves into tragi-farce and descends into fantastical chaos as the narrator literally loses himself through his obsessive search for his dead uncle. Wilson's prose is playful, vivid, richly layered and poignant. A story that throws many curve balls at the reader, including big questions about the meaning and/or absurdity of life.” —Gabriella Goliger, author of Eva Salomon's War   “How do we define ourselves in the absence of personal and cultural history? An Idea About my Dead Uncle is a raw, honest and unsentimental novel about the search for self. Wilson is equally at home shining a light on the mundane details of domestic life and traversing the backroads of China with his unlikely hero, as he takes us on a journey into the emptiness at the heart of us all.” —Julie Hartley, author of The Finding Place Call Me Stan is a ludicrous epic and a tender-hearted romp―an easy-reading humanist adventure that feels as if Monty Python rewrote Virginia Woolf's Orlando. -- Sean Michaels, author of The Wagers and Giller Prize winner Us Conductors. Kevin Wilson’s remarkable novel is smart, funny, unpredictable and engaging. Imbued with insights on family, identity, relationships and music, An Idea About My Dead Uncle brims with suspense and adventure, intriguing characters and fine storytelling. -- Cora Siré, author of Behold Things Beautiful Wilson’s latest is great for readers of historical fiction, especially ancient military fiction, or those who prefer character driven stories. Good for fans of Bernard Cornwell, Ken Follett, and Robert Harris. -- Library Journal Kevin Wilson’s remarkable novel is smart, funny, unpredictable and engaging. Imbued with insights on family, identity, relationships and music, An Idea About My Dead Uncle brims with suspense and adventure, intriguing characters and fine storytelling. -- Cora Siré, author of Behold Things Beautiful K.R. Wilson was born in Calgary in 1958. He has a bachelor’s degree in music (BMus) from the University of Calgary, with a major in theory and composition. He also has a law degree (LLB). He lives in the Toronto area with his wife and daughter. He has been, among other things, a music teacher, a delivery truck driver, and an office supplies salesman. He sings in a fine 100-voice concert choir. He likes British television, unreliable narrators, and avant garde music. Names. They're so malleable. I was originally called Ishtanu, after one of our sun gods. We had a lot of gods. Some were ours; some co-opted from our vassals. We had a lot of vassals, too. My life started out like any other bronze age teenager’s. Shepherding. Arranged marriage. Military draft. It got more complicated when I realized I didn’t die. And it got a lot more complicated when other people realized it. Pre-modern society may have embraced a lot of theoretical immortals, but it wasn’t all that tolerant of actual immortality. Modern society isn’t noticeably better. I cope by changing identities every 20 years or so. That creates its own complications, of course. You think you have trouble keeping track of your online passwords? Try keeping track, over thousands of years, of which name you’re using for each particular eyeblink of your life. So I try to keep a common element. I've been Drustan, Constantius, Constanze. Yo