Since I began this project of rereading through Mavis Gallant’s stories, in January 2017, I’ve had this story in the back of my mind, unable to place it. I should have suspected it would reside here, in my first Gallant collection. Instead, I had begun to wonder if it
Nothing really happens. Here, the "main event is simply a view of the water". So Ruby's story should not be a page-turner. But, in fact, The Town that Drowned is a coming-of-age story with a curious momentum. No single element is responsible: character and voice, setting and structure, all work
The Boston Globe called her fiction "Pacific Northwest Gothic" and her latest novel, The Spawning Grounds, fits that description well. She made a splash on Canadian readers' stacks since The Cure for Death by Lightning was shortlisted for the Giller Prize (A Recipe for Bees was also nominated for the Giller,
You'd think that the heart of the story in The River Burns is the covered bridge. The cover. The marketing. And the Author's Note which launches the novel refers to the actual Wakefield Bridge fire. "Historical events inspired the novel's genesis; skeletal aspects are mirrored here; yet the gentle shifts to time
