Guernica Editions

Hélène Rioux and Jonathan Kaplansky (Translator)

In this collection of ten short stories, the main characters -- women between the ages of 13 to 88 -- see death appear suddenly in their daily lives: in the pages of a novel written by a former lover, in a farewell letter abandoned on a living room coffee table, in the memory of a first love. Although disturbing in their truth, these stories are written in luminous prose that reconciles us -- almost -- with that ultimate rendezvous, our own Date With Destiny.

The teenager scans the landscape. Outside, the sun calls to her: her salmon-coloured bathing suit lies on the bed. She got it for her birthday. Salmon, what a colour! Her mother wanted to make her happy and her mother understands nothing -- From Anne ... Who Sees Nothing Coming