The Undertaking of Billy Buffone is a story about the trauma - immediate and ongoing, personal and collateral - inflicted by Rupert Churley, who preyed on boys in Twenty-Six Mile House, an isolated town in northern Ontario. The suicides, the conspiracy of silence, the secrets and the damage done to the boys, their friends and families, persist long after the murder of Scouter Churley.
"In The Undertaking of Billy Buffone, Giuliano conjures small town Northern Ontario, the shame that allows harm to carry on well past due, the way tragedies can overlap and intersect, as can our healing trajectories, bringing folks together in a universal human experience of loss and redemption."
- Nathan Niigan Noodin Adler, author, Wrist and Ghost Lake
"The Undertaking of Billy Buffone is a fearless journey into the troubled souls of the citizens of a northern Ontario town. The traumas simmering within this close-knit community are real, gritty — and often spiral into greater problems. One by one, each character discovers that life’s burdens cannot be carried alone forever; the cost is too great. Truths are revealed and shame loses its power. There is redemption."
- Jocelyn Bell, Editor/Publisher, Broadview
"In a narrative that unfolds like old time rock-n-roll Giuliano delivers a pitch-perfect, whip-smart glimpse into the lives of highly memorable characters in a small Northwestern Ontario town."
- Dayle Furlong, Lake Effect & Other Stories
A vivid portrait of lives intertwined in the search for redemption amidst the uncovering of dormant truths a small town tried to bury.