The title of Grace O'Connell's debut novel is pulled from a poem by Helen Humphreys, "Blurring".* It's ironic that the closer you examine something, the harder it is to focus, and this is a truth which Maggie Pierce inhabits when Magnified World opens. She is reeling from her
At first it seems simple. One scene after the next. Imagine them, jotted on yellowed, soiled, stained pages from eighty-someodd-years ago. Scattered across time and space, you quietly order each of these moments in your reader's mind. You think you are assembling a timeline, affording these scenes refuge
Once a year, David travels to visit Stella; they have been divorced for 8 years (they were married for 21 years), and this year he brings Catherine, the woman he is with. But Catherine is not his "new girl"; that is Dina -- without the 'h' -- whose picture he
The cover of People Park invites readers to take a walk in another's shoes. See? They're actually right there: the shoes, on the cover, with their laces still tied. But it's not going to be easy to wedge your feet in, not like that. You will have to do
Take a clue from the opening sentence. It seems very straightforward, ordinary. But the part with the parkette being like a teardrop turned sideways? Heather Birrell will take what you know and slant it. (And, also, there is some sadness.) "BriannaSusannaAlana" is named for the three sisters who tell the
