barbara gowdy has a new book
“Gowdy’s characters are unforgettable, her dialogue dead-on funny and smart. Her children are perfectly drawn, and, oh, the grown-ups! They are brilliantly irreverent, full of wit and wisdom, creating a story so strange, so moving, that you will tuck it into your heart and keep it there.”
“exactly the sort of intelligent, enthralled, playful and empathetic literature that Gowdy has been delivering for the last three decades.”
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ten years after her last novel, 'helpless', barbara gowdy has a new book. and she is coming to waterloo to talk to us about it on may 24.
barbara has been nominated for every major canadian book prize (the giller, the governor general's award, the rogers writers trust) as well as for the man booker prize. after this long absence, we are delighted to welcome barbara to waterloo to talk about her latest novel.
Rose is a sensible woman, thirty-four years old. Together with her widowed mother, Fiona, she runs a small repertory cinema in a big city. Fiona is in the early stages of dementia and is beginning to make painful references to Rose’s sister, Ava, who died young in an accident.
It is high summer, and a band of storms, unusual for their frequency and heavy downpour, is rolling across the city. Something unusual is also happening to Rose. As the storms break overhead, she loses consciousness and has vivid, realistic dreams—not only about being someplace else, but also of living someone else’s life.
Is Rose merely dreaming? Or is she, in fact, inside the body of another woman? Disturbed and entranced, she tries to find out what is happening to her.
Like The White Bone, Gowdy’s international bestseller, Little Sister is a fictional tour de force. As the author explores the limits of the human mind, the result is an impassioned tale of one woman’s determination to help a woman she has never met, and to come to terms with a death for which she has always felt responsible.