You can imagine Harry Salter, the main character in Don Gillmor's second novel, nodding along with Murray. Random House Canada, 2013 Murray is actually a character in an Alice Munro story, looking back at his much-changed life, but the story is familiar. "Does it deserve to be called
"It is through weakness and vulnerability that most of us... discover our soul." (Desmond Tutu) Doubleday Canada - Random House, 2013 If you take Desmond Tutu's statement as truth, Jowita Bydlowska's Drunk Mom is arguably the ultimate discovery. Her to-the-bare-walls description of her alcoholism displays every weakness. It
"In the lane, I had already lost a boot and fallen on my knees so that now my trousers were soaked and one of my socks was sodden and the bottoms of both my sleeves were freezing against my wrists." Harper Collins, 1990 This is Timothy Findley, writing
"To Reach Japan" begins with a departure and ends with an arrival. McClelland & Stewart - Random House, 2012 That is not commonly how it goes, but it's not unusual in the territory of Alice Munro's stories, which often begin in the present and work backwards to the
For years, a set of loose photocopied pages were housed on my bookshelf with the M's. (Do you do this, too?) Then, they were tucked inside my copy of Lisa Moore's Alligator: her short story "Azalea", which first appeared in the March/April 2002 issue of THIS Magazine. I was first drawn
