Every life is shaped by moments of loss, endurance, and renewal. In his trilogy of works, including Evelyn, Robot Head, and Bones and Skull: The Book of Meditations, Robert Antrim Calwell explores these moments not through grand events but through the quiet, haunting details that define them.
The first part of that rhythm begins with Evelyn, a poetic retelling of a true crime that gripped Canada in the mid-1940s. The story follows the infamous case of Evelyn Dick and her trial for the murder of her husband, John Dick. Yet Calwell’s approach moves beyond headlines and courtrooms. He focuses on how memory, place, and moral judgment intertwine. The book explores how justice can be flawed and how public perception often shapes truth. Beneath the story of crime lies a reflection on mortality and reputation — how easily one life can be reduced to rumor, and how difficult it is to reclaim it.
In Robot Head, Calwell transitions from exploring the external world of law to delving into inner consciousness. The story centers on Tiara, a young woman whose suicide attempt leaves her teetering between life and death. After an experimental surgery replaces her head with a robotic one, her experience becomes an exploration of identity and memory. It raises questions about what it means to live when parts of you are no longer human. What occurs when technology embodies emotions, regrets, and hope? Tiara’s journey captures the conflict between despair and healing, emphasizing that survival is less about reclaiming the past and more about learning to live with what is left.
Finally, Bones and Skull expands the trilogy into the realm of myth and spirit. Its poems weave images of skeletons, coffins, and angels into reflections on the eternal. Death here is not the end but part of a cycle that leads to renewal. The recurring symbols in the book—the Weaver, the Children of Teardrop Falls, and the hanging flowers on Weaver’s Mountain—embody the quest for illumination amid darkness. In this regard, Calwell proposes that facing mortality can lead to peace and that accepting it might be the greatest form of understanding.
When viewed together, these books create a layered reflection on existence that teaches us that justice cannot restore what is lost, Robot Head shows that survival comes with pain, and Bones and Skull remind us that death can be another form of transformation. The trilogy invites us to look at life not as a straight line, but as a circle, where there is no end and every point contains the start of something else.
Calwell’s writing is poetic yet grounded. He does not romanticize crime, despair, or death. Instead, he treats them as shared human experiences that reveal the depth of our need for meaning. His work reminds us that to rethink life and death is also to rethink ourselves, how we love, how we grieve, and how we keep going.
For readers who seek stories that are both thoughtful and emotionally real, Robert Antrim Calwell’s trilogy offers a rare experience. It shows that between life and death lies reflection, and within reflection lies the possibility of grace.
Head to Amazon to purchase your copies:
Evelyn: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DJTHJNCG.
Robot Head: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DJH76L3D.
Bones and Skull: The Book of Meditations: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DHQVBD9W.