Originally written after the author had been diagnosed with a brain tumour, Testament is a response to the news that Vickie Gendreau would have little time left to live: about a year. 2012; Book Thug, 2016 The novel's translator, Aimee Wall, writes about the work, a few months
The majority of my reading time this year has been devoted to the books which have been living for years, though neglected, on my own bookshelves. In May and June, I had a planned rebellion, and I enjoyed a great number of new books. But now I have returned to
This year I have read some stand-out collections, but for the most part I neglected to take notes from them: Joy Williams' Honored Guests, Kathleen Winter's The Freedom in American Songs, Jessica Grant's Making Light of Tragedy, Shawn Syms' Nothing Looks Familiar, Elaine McCluskey's Hello, Sweetheart, Julia Leggett's Gone South and Other
On the list of 10 Perfect Alice Munro sentences, recently selected by CBC, this is the first: "Every year, when you’re a child, you become a different person." It begs the question, "When does one stop becoming somebody new every year?" Perhaps after an event like the incident described in this
Such good reading this summer, so far. In other respects, perhaps mine has not been the most productive summer. But it all depends what one puts on a to-do list, doesn't it! What if your to-do list was all about the books in your stacks? House of Anansi, 2015
