It seems like everyone is talking about Jamie Zeppa’s debut novel, Every Time We Say Goodbye, a 2011 New Face of Fiction selection!
“[A]n astute and effortlessly readable portrait of a family in crisis. . . . Zeppa has fortified this raw material with a rich family history, shifting dynamics and a gentle voice that allows the novel to waft, rather than plod, as it pieces together its characters’ disparate narratives. . . . [Dawn’s] disappointment is rendered with such empathy that even the most stone-hearted of readers will be moved. . . . [Zeppa has] craft[ed] a smart, accessible novel that has put Sault Ste. Marie on the map of the family epic.” Emily Landau, National Post
“Zeppa’s fine sense of observation and atmosphere of Sault Ste. Marie remains throughout. You know its middle-class homes, cramped apartments, cheap hotel rooms; you breathe its daily life. . . . Much to admire.” Winnipeg Free Press
“[Zeppa] shimmer[s] with promise. . . . Jamie Zeppa, an accomplished travel writer . . . explores family dynamics and those emotional bugaboos—abandonment and longing—in her compelling first novel, Every Time We Say Goodbye.” ELLE Canada
“Rife with raw and stifled emotion, broken dreams and broken hearts, [Every Time We Say Goodbye] is less a quiet triumph than a thunderous tour de force that keeps you laughing, hoping and turning every page until hours have slipped by.” Heather Camlot, Sweetspot.ca
“[It] doesn’t do it justice, just to say what it is about. Better to say what it does to the reader, for the reader. . . . It grips your heart and doesn’t let you put it down until you have come to the final words. Then you are left, like so many characters in the book, somewhat bereft. I am so very glad that a friend recommended this book to me . . . this book is so very well written––so tender and even funny at times, that I firmly believe it will soon be considered a Canadian classic, with pride of place beside Ann-Marie MacDonald and Carol Shields, two of my favourite Canadian authors. The fact that Every Time We Say Goodbye is her first novel . . . is even more amazing. . . . Read this book!” Natashya, KitchenPuppies
“Jamie Zeppa takes [the traditional] definition [of family] and flips it on its head in her wonderful new novel. . . . Fabulous coming-of-age story. . . . Every character has a purpose and a place in the novel and the ending will once again take you in a completely different direction than you thought you were going. Jamie Zeppa is one of Knopf Random Canada’s New Face of Fiction authors and after reading her fabulous . . . debut, it isn’t hard to figure out why!” Reeder Reads
“A captivating family saga—full of deeply felt observations and breathtaking tenderness—Jamie Zeppa’s debut is sure to steal your heart.” Ami McKay, author of The Birth House
“In Every Time We Say Goodbye, Jamie Zeppa does for Sault Ste. Marie what Alice Munro does for Southwestern Ontario. The sense of place is palpable. The suffering characters are reminiscent of the quiet tragedy of Richard B. Wright’s Clara Callan. There is a certain small town tragic, silent, suffering that belongs to Canada and Zeppa has boiled down its essence. It is also a great read. It captures the teenage girl’s longing for excitement and the tragedy that follows such inclinations.” Catherine Gildiner, author of Too Close to the Falls and After the Falls
“A tender, exquisitely written story that aches and laughs and hopes, and never quite leaves you. Jamie Zeppa’s Every Time We Say Goodbye is driven by characters so real you nearly become them. A deeply penetrating novel.” Tish Cohen, author of The Truth About Delilah Blue and Inside Out Girl
“Every once in a while a delicious novel comes along, one that pulls you in and twirls you through its world until you look up and three hours have gone by. Or six. While there are many stories about families, what distinguishes this book is the compassionate wisdom that underpins it, the grace that echoes through it. To read this masterful (and humorous!) novel is to feel what it is to forgive and live bravely: with a tender, laughing, ever-opening heart.” Alison Wearing, author of Honeymoon in Purdah
BookLounge.ca is giving away 10 signed copies of this fantastic debut novel. Click here to get the details. You can also read the first chapter of Every Time We Say Goodbye here, or meet Jamie Zeppa at one of her tour stops.
Beautifully written, hauntingly told, Touch is a New Face of Fiction novel that in its storytelling and recounting of a multi-generational family story brings to mind Márquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude - and in its evocation of the mythic wilderness, Joseph Boyden’s Three Day Road.
Touch will be available wherever books and eBooks are sold on April 12, 2011, but we’ve got a sneak peek for you:
|
 |
|||
|
 |
CURRICULUM VITAE
Kurt Wallander
Chief Inspector
Ystad Police Department
Personal details:
Writing is a lonely sport. During the day, when my daughters are in school and my wife is at work, I sometimes feel like I’ve simply been forgotten, that at any moment they will come bursting back through the door to take me with them. The house has its own rhythm when my family is home, but when it’s just me, it’s as if something is absent, the hum of the refrigerator not enough to compensate for what is missing. The thing is, there’s something about that odd sort of loneliness that I like. I’ve spent plenty of time writing in coffee shops with headphones on to block out the noise, but mostly, nowadays, writing full time, I work from home. I think it helps that I play music when I’m writing, that the keyboard for my computer clicks furiously as I type, that I hear the words in my head, but I know for sure that it helps that I’ve got a dog curled up at my feet.
There has been a lot of snark (like this) on the internet lately about adults who read, and love, young adult books. I hear it from my friends too, who see the adult uptake of teen series like Harry Potter, Twilight and The Hunger Games as something “wrong with the world”. It drove the fine folks at YA Book Shelf to write not one, but two responses: The Devaluation Of The YA Genre and Can YA Lit Lovers Be Called Postmodern Readers?
As a 30-something who reads widely, including a chunk of YA lit, I can’t help but take notice of this debate. I have read some really thought-provoking novels that were intended to be read by young people - RAGE: A Love Story and No and Me are prime examples. And I fail to see the difference between an adult reading a popular adult book, like The Da Vinci Code, and a popular young adult book, like The Hunger Games. In fact, I had more personal engagement with The Hunger Games, trying to imagine myself in a similar setting and how I would have handled the life-or-death choices facing those characters, than I did with The Da Vinci Code.
Since BookLounge.ca is a community of avid readers, whose loves include both literary and commercial fiction, I wanted to bring the debate in-house and ask you what you think. Do we all need to “grow up” and move past the YA shelf at the bookstore? Or should we pride ourselves on being able to enjoy and engage with books for all audiences?
I left Fergus on a cool spring night and traveled to marvelous Montreal. Je t’aime la belle ville. I determined that McGill University Bookstore would provide me with my next opportunity for a contest entry and a purchase of international crime. As I strolled along the modern and charmant McTavish Street in downtown Montreal, I noticed the young charmant university students lounging on stoops. I so wanted to linger but I daren’t stop. Inside the bookstore, I went upstairs to find myself entangled in crime scene tape. Quelle damage? I’ve been caught! Non, c’est display. C’est criminal. My kohl-ringed eyes immediately lighted upon a book titled Murder in the Marais set in Paris. The book stars Aimée Leduc, a Parisian private investigator, who is fearless and is constantly running, hiding, fighting and risking her life—all while dressed in vintage Chanel and Dior and Louboutin heels. She is my kind of woman. I am satisfied and fatigued, it is time for a café latte in a bistro as I must start reading this book. Where am I headed next, is a mystery…
TO BE CONTINUED
Thursday afternoon I had the pleasure of joining Joy Fielding at Zoomer Magazine headquarters for the Writers Bloc webcast. Upon arrival, the lovely Zoomer team greeted us with tasty treats and whisked Joy away for hair and makeup. (I’ll admit that I’m always a bit jealous watching people get their makeup done professionally.) The webcast was a live show, and with a bit of time before it was to start, we fawned over the latest photographs of Joy’s gorgeous grandson. Shortly before they went live to air, we were brought down to the concert lobby, where the webcast team, made up of various members including a floor director, a sound engineer and several camera operators, scurried around us. Microphones on. Ear pieces in. Final primping. And ACTION!
Joy and editor/host Athena McKenzie sat in two casual chairs on a lush cream faux fur carpet and began the show. Joy’s book trailer introduced her new novel Now You See Her and her daughter Shannon Micol’s music was incorporated. Athena was a wonderful host, guiding Joy through various questions that were pre-submitted by fans and some that were sent during the live taping. As a publicist you hear lots of questions, many that are versions of the same. And as Joy publishes a book a year I’ve had the chance to get well acquainted with her answers. But some of the more original questions asked at this taping included a fan wanting to know if Joy keeps a notebook on her bedside table for great ideas she gets in the night? And what the secret to her 37 year long marriage was. To find out the answers, you’ll have to watch the podcast!
Frankfurt is a great city for a murder, as illustrated in Kismet. My time at Book City had proved satisfying, but I woke up one morning in Fergus, Ontario with a need to feed my hunger for more crime. Don’t ask me how I got there. It was a tip that I decided to follow and it led me to #152 St. Andrew St. West. My eye was drawn immediately to a book in the window called The Ghosts of Belfast. I’ve long had an intimate relationship with ghosts and so I was intrigued by this crime novel that promised to read like a collaboration between John Connolly and Stephen King. It gives me goose bumps just anticipating a long night alone with this story. But first I must enter Roxanne’s Reflections Book Shop.
I am greeted by a very friendly and fine-looking man who encourages me to enter to win 7 crime novels packaged in a Soho Press tote bag. He informs me they will be drawing the winning name on Friday April 8th. Oh, I so want to be the winner! He further enticed me with an offer to buy 3 books and get the 4th free. Oh, what delicious delights! I eventually leave this sociable shop and stumble along the street reveling in my purchase. Where I’m headed next is a mystery …
TO BE CONTINUED
[Editor's note: Every April, the Toronto Public Library hosts a month-long festival called Keep Toronto Reading. As part of these festivities, the library selects one book they believe all Torontonians should read. This year's selection is Judy Fong Bates' Midnight at the Dragon Cafe.]
In my parents’ house there were no English books. The library in my small town was the size of an elementary school classroom. The shelves went to the ceiling and were so close together that even a small child like me had to walk sideways between them. I visited as much as three times a week after supper, and if it had been open, I would have been there the other evenings as well. That dusty crowded room transported me to worlds unknown. The women volunteers introduced me to Lewis Carroll, Daphne du Maurier, L. M. Montgomery, the Brothers Grimm, and more. For an immigrant kid like me, the public library was one of the primary building blocks in my love of words and stories. I am deeply indebted to the library of my youth. So, when Tina Srebotnjak told me that Toronto Public Library had chosen Midnight at the Dragon Cafe for its Keep Toronto Reading 2011 One Book, I was speechless!
The events that have been planned for Midnight at the Dragon Cafe are extensive and interesting. And on a personal level, I am flattered to see so many other writers and artists involved. Who would ever have thought that an immigrant girl like me would one day not only write a book, but have its cover on the side of a Toronto streetcar!
From Henning Mankell, author most recently of the bestselling, internationally acclaimed thriller The Man from Beijing - comes the first Kurt Wallander mystery in more than a decade: the much-anticipated return of the brilliant, brooding detective. Suspenseful, darkly atmospheric, psychologically gripping, The Troubled Man is Henning Mankell at his mesmerizing best.
The Troubled Man will be available wherever books and eBooks are sold on March 29, 2011, but we’ve got a sneak peek for you:
Blogroll
