In Imagining Ancient Women (2011), Annabel Lyon declares that “literary fiction is uniquely poised to perform an important ethical function in our lives—namely to teach us compassion”. She warns of the pitfalls: moral outrage, forbidden love, and excessive decoration. All of which she avoids in Consent. So much so,
Best known as a poet, Anne Simpson has also published two novels prior to Speechless: her debut, Canterbury Beach (2001), and her follow-up, Falling (2008). This new book shifts to an overtly global focus and beckons to a broader readership. “A Hausa girl in Paiko, Niger State – Thomas
The characters in Shani Mootoo’s fiction often carry a burden. Cereus Blooms at Night (1996) is a lyrical and painful story of reconciling past trauma with present-day understanding (and a personal favourite). In Moving Sideways Like a Crab (2014), one character believes that all they “learned about women and
Marion Poschmann’s The Pine Islands (2017; Trans. Jen Calleja 2020) was shortlisted for the International Booker Prize in 2019. The jury describes it like this: “A quirky, unpredictable and darkly comic confrontation with mortality.” Her first book was published in Germany in 2002 and, since, her work has been
Within the first few pages of Watching You Without Me, I was reminded of why I enjoy Lynn Coady’s work so much, her capacity to inhabit characters so thoroughly. Here, we have Karen, who’s returned to Nova Scotia to settle matters with her developmentally disabled older sister, following their
