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As noted by Quill & Quire, Frances Itani is an award
winning writer. Most recently, she won the Tilden/Saturday Night/CBC Literary
Award for two consecutive years; an impressive feat as the stories are submitted
to the jurors for evaluation anonymously. Now, Itani expands her control
of the short story medium, with her new novel, LEANING, LEANING OVER WATER,
a series of connected short stories.
Almost all the narration is by Trude, the middle child of the King family.
She has been told that her position in the family makes her the family collector
and teller of stories. The stories she recounts crystallize crucial moments
during the life of her family, the people around them, and the social climate of
pre-Quiet Revolution Quebec.
The stories begin after the father has moved his family to a rural area on
the Quebec side of the Ottawa River, where he has taken a job painting
fleur-de-lis on tin trays in a nearby factory. For the children this means they
grow up in delightful wilderness surrounded by people and customs which are
completely new, but leaves their English speaking, non-swimming mother in
isolation. The family is cut off from much of the world, but there is much of
the world around them. They learn of their individuality through the cultural
differences they find between themselves and their nearest neighbours, the Roman
Catholic family down the way. They learn about sex and despair first hand
through the few adults around them. And they are constantly exposed to life and
death, and miracles through their constant contact with the river itself.
The Ottawa River ( the "water" referred to in the title) borders
the King family abode and wends its way through every story in the novel --
always rushing past, bringing with it joys and sorrows, its power never to be
underestimated, nor taken lightly -- underscoring the frailty of life lived on
its banks.
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Remembering the Bones
Georgina Danforth Witley has never felt she has led anything but an ordinary life. But here she is on her way to meet the Queen. Born on April 21, 1926, the exact same day as Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II, Georgie is one of 99 privileged Commonwealth subjects invited to an 80th-birthday lunch at...
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Poached Egg On Toast
FRANCES ITANI RETURNS to her roots with a collection of over 20 remarkable short stories. Showcasing the range and depth of her work, these include selections from her previous three collections, as well as seven new stories. In the award-winning title story, “Poached Egg on Toast,” a small...
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Deafening
Deaf since she was five years old, Grania has learned that watching is not always enough to survive in the world of the hearing. Sent to the Ontario School for the Deaf in Belleville, Ontario, Grania must learn to live away from her loving family. When Grania falls in love with Jim, a young hearing...
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