National Network for Equitable Library Service

Births mark beginnings, while funerals toll in endings. Yet there resides so much in-between drama in the timeline of an extended family: moments of intense joy, times of heart-wrenching grief, and the day-to-day plodding of ups and downs that color the struggle with loss in all of human existence. In a series of linked short stories that superbly capture the emotions her characters' experience, the author deftly chronicles the personal episodes that transform the lives of five Italian-American cousins during the final years before the death of one of the family patriarchs.

A boy finds a vocation as a weaver of bread. A Russian woman, thought dead, e-mails greetings to her adolescent sister in a Canadian suburb. An investment banker vanishes and is found fifteen years later when his daughter discovers a painting of herself in a distant gallery. With wit and ache, Daniel Karasik's Faithful and Other Stories evokes a world of seekers, characters panning for meaning in environments by turns hostile, mystifying, and enchanted.

The Midwife of Torment & Other Stories is a collection of sudden fiction that compresses its narrative to deliver a variety of stories that alternate the flavour of a philosophical reflection with the whimsical enchantment of a fable with a twist. These stories also often dwell on the strange--and the horror--found in our mundane lives. Stories that, on occasion, also leap as far as speculative fiction or swirl in a lyrical exploration of prose narratives.

Polish(ed): Poland Rooted in Canadian Fiction is the only anthology of Polish-Canadian writing in Canada and includes many internationally acclaimed and award-winning Canadian writers. What is the literary and cultural benefit of a diaspora anthology? It presents work from a community, a family of writers. It represents a cultural contribution to Canadian literature. It makes it known where they come from personally and metaphorically, what inspires them.

Two brothers come to school and do nothing but tell stories. A young woman works at the Indian Consulate in a major American city. A man goes to a singles dance. An unnamed narrator offers his “notes” on modern-day America. An old Jewish man in a nursing home tells the tale of his daughter. A retired man in India tries to collect his pension. A woman tells the story of her husband's death in partition India. A man goes from interview to interview, hoping for employment. Some stories are fable-like, others more realistic.

Migration stories are an essential component of Canada's historical/literary continuum; we need to know of such writings to rationalize about who Canadians really are, and where they are from. Aren't we all the children of migration? Where we came from, how we got here, who we were, and are, and who may become in time … such themes should interest all those naturally concerned about identity and origin; that eternal enigma wrought of migration. These short-fiction stories tell much about migration and Canada, in ways that are funny, ribald, tragic or contemplative, but never dull.

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.

We all know adults who are stranded in the amber of adolescence. Growing older but not necessarily growing up is the central theme of Middle-Aged Boys & Girls, featuring characters who, to varying degrees, are stuck in adolescent roles of rebel, outcast, enfant terrible and cool kid. All are linked by losses--of looks, of status, of job security, of health, of confidence--which forces them to life's inevitable turning point.

Recruits in a boot camp go through tough training exercises to become an elite cadre of readers. The near-death experience of an atheist makes him re-evaluate his life. An academic abandons his two kids and meets them as adults. A chef uses his TV cooking show to re-connect with his family. Four movie fanatics go for a last binge in cottage country. A self-made billionaire teaches a free course in inner peace. This collection features an eclectic variety of stories that are at once thought-provoking and whimsical, with a touch of the incongruous and the absurd.

The stories in this collection centre around new immigrants -- spirited people prepared to leave their home and hearth to travel to distant lands in pursuit of dreams of a better life. But often times there's a reality check, and they are left to grapple with unexpected challenges: cultural shock, lack of Canadian work experience and jobs, absence of affordable daycare, and non-recognition of their educational credentials. Despite this, the stories show the determination of these immigrants to survive on alien soil.