Andrew David MacDonald Books in Order

If you want the book everyone starts with: When We Were Vikings
If you like voice-driven, character-first fiction: When We Were Vikings
If you want a moving sibling story with real stakes: When We Were Vikings

Andrew David MacDonald is a Canadian novelist and short story writer who grew up in Edmonton, Alberta. Most readers know him for When We Were Vikings, a debut centered on Zelda, a young woman who sees the world through Viking legends and fierce rules of loyalty. The book made an immediate impression because it is funny, tense, and deeply kind without pretending life is simple.

Before the novel, MacDonald spent years publishing short fiction. He won a Western Magazine Award for Fiction, was shortlisted for the Canadian National Magazine Award for Fiction, and had stories selected for four volumes of The Journey Prize Stories, an annual showcase for emerging Canadian writers.

He did not come to writing with a neat, romantic origin story.

In interviews, MacDonald has described himself as the kind of kid who was more athlete than literary prodigy. He has said he first started writing partly to impress a girl, and that The World According to Garp was the book that first made him cry. That mix, competitive energy on one side, emotional openness on the other, still feels like a useful key to his work. He later earned an MFA from the Program for Poets and Writers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, which gave him time to sharpen his craft and take fiction seriously as a life.

When We Were Vikings did not begin as a novel at all. It started as a short story written from the point of view of the character who would become Gert, Zelda's brother. Only later did MacDonald realize that the story was brushing up against something personal: he and his brother had helped care for a family member when they were young, and some of Gert's frustration grew out of that emotional territory. As he kept following the characters, Zelda's voice stepped forward, and the book found its real center.

That voice is the reason so many readers remember the novel.

MacDonald has spoken about building Zelda's language carefully, right down to her favorite phrases, rules, and the way Viking lore helps her read a world that often underestimates her. In When We Were Vikings, he uses that voice to tell a larger story about caregiving, independence, poverty, danger, sex, friendship, and the stubborn love that holds an improvised family together. Readers who connect with the book usually point to the same things: Zelda feels real, the bond between her and Gert is messy and tender, and the novel refuses to flatten people into heroes or villains.

Even with a small published bibliography, you can already see what draws MacDonald in. He seems interested in people living close to the edge, morally, financially, or emotionally, and in the hard work of trying to care for one another anyway. His fiction has room for rough humor, neighborhood danger, and the daily logistics of survival, but it also makes space for dignity. When When We Were Vikings came out, it picked up early attention from booksellers and librarians. It is the kind of novel that gives readers a character to root for, then asks them to think harder about autonomy, disability, and the shape of family.

MacDonald keeps a relatively low public profile, which can make him feel a little mysterious. Still, the outline is clear enough. He is a writer who spent years honing short fiction, found his break with a voice-driven debut, and turned difficult personal material into something warm, unsentimental, and memorable. If you are coming to him for the first time, When We Were Vikings is the obvious place to begin, and it also gives a good sense of what he does best: intimate stakes, offbeat humor, and a lot of heart.