Maclean's Editors' Pick: Best Books for Summer Reading

From the Journey Prize winner Holley Rubinsky comes a collection of linked stories that paints no-nonsense characters with a heartfelt hand. Rubinsky unearths the compulsions that rile ordinary lives, and the dreams and grave losses that haunt them. Set in the fictitious town of Ruth, BC, the cast of these wildly tragi-comic dramas disturb, shock, confound and impress. Some find their lives dusted with hope and redemption; others are not so easily saved.

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"A remarkable novel by a huge and genuine talent. Holley Rubinsky has perfect pitch."—Ian Brown

"There is a vein of bravery and insight running through — so rich that it infuses everything.... This is an author staring down the hardest things she knows ... and the results are incendiary."—The Globe and Mail

"Holley Rubinsky's voice is clear, her eyes and ears are carefully tuned, and she has something fresh and loving to say about the world that we live in daily.... Rubinsky's stories are restorative, in the best sense of that word, and renewing."—Russell Banks

"Books this good are rare. [These stories] combine the fine craftsmanship we expect from a Munro or Gallant with Rubinsky's own delightful idiosyncrasy."—The Edmonton Journal

"... Rubinsky's interior monologues are spot on ... Her ability to create believable male characters in all their spunky confusion, and extend sympathy to them, is a laudable achievement." --The Ottawa Citizen

"... remarkable ... [Holley Rubinsky] paints a picture so vivid and creates her cast of characters in such a convincing manner that it is hard to believe we are not reading a non-fiction book." --The County Chronicle

"... emotionally complex ... Rubinsky's stories are intimate explorations of breakdowns in process -- breakdowns of family, of the mind, of emotional clarity." --The Toronto Star

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Holley Rubinsky is the acclaimed author of At First I Hope for Rescue and Rapid Transits and Other Stories. She has won the Journey Prize and the Canadian National Magazine Award Gold Medal for Fiction. Holley Rubinsky divides her time between British Columbia and Arizona.

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