Like Alva in "Sunday Afternoons" and Edie in "How I Met My Husband", Grace is a young woman with a summer job. But even within the context of this transitory existence and experience, she settles into a routine, steadfast and predictable. McClelland & Stewart, 2004 Soon, Grace is
Steven Galloway’s new novel The Confabulist reminds me that I have yet to read his other works. Earlier this year, I started reading The Cellist of Sarajevo (because it was chosen as Toronto’s One Book for 2014) and I have Ascension and Finnie Walsh at hand too, but The Confabulist
Paradoxically, the phenomenon in The Fever has a chilling effect on characters and readers alike. The girls fall to the ground, one after the next; they writhe and tensions rise but blood is chilled. Little Brown & Company, 2014 “As Deenie walked out, a coolness began to sink
"The 'geography' in question is the Cypress Hills, a broken rise of land that straddles the Alberta/Saskatchewan border, just north of Havre, Montana," the author explains.* "The country is a complete knockout for anyone who enjoys the romance of the Earth’s history or who is susceptible to the wild, windblown beauty of
In the story, it is Joan who prolongs the name "with a certain tone of celebration". Penelope. But it's easy to imagine that it is actually Alice Munro who is savouring every syllable as she draws it out in ink. Pen-ell-oh-pee. You can imagine her there, à la Winslet and DiCaprio, at the
