Today' s schools are meant to be all things to all people, but can they be? Schools are responsible for socialization, skills development and knowledge acquisition which take place within an institution serving disparate student populations. Unfortunately, school success is not experienced by all students, especially those for whom chaotic home lives are overwhelming. Schools should provide an important safe haven for students, offering advocacy and wraparound care. Fictionalized to protec...

Filled with the pleasure of recognizable yet distinctively original characters and a deftly drawn sense of time and place, A Quilting of Scars brings to life a story of forbidden love, abuse and murder. Pulsing with repressed sexuality and guilt, Larkin Beattie reveals the many secrets he has kept hidden throughout his lonely life. The character-driven narrative is a meditation on aging and remorse, offering a rich account of the strictures and rhythms of farming in the not-so-distant past...

When the Tay Bridge collapsed in 1879 it killed everyone on the train that was crossing, leaving the son of the driver, young Brodie Smith, traumatized and reduced to poverty as a result of his father’s death. Leaving home determined to make his way in the world, Brodie finds safe haven with his kindly uncle in Edinburgh and studies engineering, intent on demonstrating that the bridge disaster was not his father’s fault. In search of adventure and further opportunities, Brodie then travels...

Exploring the intergenerational consequences of trauma, including those of a Holocaust survivor and a woman imprisoned during the Iranian Revolution, Stella’s Carpet weaves together the overlapping lives of those stepping outside the shadows of their own harrowing histories to make conscious decisions about how they will choose to live while forging new understandings of family, forgiveness and reconciliation. As the story unfolds, readers are invited to ponder questions about how we can e...

The stories in this collection are unifed by a sense of dislocation. In each of the pieces, there is an underlying element of disturbance and disharmony. Resolution threads its way through the narratives while the characters struggle to navigate conscious choices and come to terms with new realities. A perspective that views the complexity of life journeys as a manifestation of intentional decisions, circumstances beyond one’s control, and the need to reflect upon the combination of both i...

All Maureen Kelly wants for Christmas is a full house. Unfortunately, now that her seven sons have all found the women of their dreams, they’re too busy to come home for the holidays. If it wasn’t for the attention of a good family friend, she would’ve completely given up on the joy of the season.Rupert Bates has been in love with Maureen for nearly twenty years, before he had any right to have such feelings for her. He’s given her five years to grieve her late husband, all the whi...

Heroes come in all shapes and sizes. However, even the most reluctant of heroes sometimes need a little help to make their dreams come true. This is the story of a small dog, the color of warm chocolate with four white paws that look as if he is wearing mismatched socks. His wish to find someone to love him comes true under rather extraordinary circumstances with help from an unusual ally.

From an acclaimed writer whose work invites comparisons to Elizabeth Strout, Rick Bass, and Richard Ford comes a brilliantly layered novel about self-sacrifice, family relationships, and the weight of our responsibility to those we love.The New York Times bestselling author of the critically acclaimed Crow Lake and The Other Side of the Bridge returns with a brilliantly layered novel about self-sacrifice, family relationships, and the wei...

Exploring grief, yet neither bleak nor overwrought, this powerful short story won the 2013 Sunday Star-Times Short Story Competition. The judge, Carl Nixon, commended its 'seemingly effortless artistry' and its skilful and well-sustained handling of demanding narrative techniques: 'the author does not miss a beat', he said. Cleverly juxtaposing the past and present, the narrator draws the reader into her life. The judge concluded: 'Beautifully controlled use of simile and ...

Mothers of the 1950s were wasp-waisted, dutiful, serene, and tied to the kitchen with apron strings. Or so we thought. This collection of searing and startling poetry and prose unties the stereotype and reveals women who were strong, wild, talented, wise, mad, creative, desperate, angry, courageous, bitter, tenacious, reckless and beautiful, sometimes all at once. The fifty-six contributors from across Canada and the world include multi-award-winning poets, novelists, and essayists, as wel...

These outstanding stories from the 2010 Bristol Short Story Prize will provoke, stimulate, move, amuse, unsettle, and entertain

A fascinating prize-winning novel about a house with a fanciful little turret, built by a river. Unfolding within its rooms are lives of event and emotional upheaval. A lot happens. And the tumultuous events of the twentieth century also leave their mark, from war to economic collapse, the deaths of presidents and princesses to new waves of music, art, architecture and political ideas. Meanwhile, a few metres away in the river, another creature follows a d...