From the acclaimed author of Visible Light comes a collection of seven outstanding stories, each set against the rural landscape of Vancouver Island and the cities of the Pacific Northwest. In these stories the memories and dreams of characters are examined, revealing them to be both cages and keys to the cages.
The life-lessons learned by the characters are often as complicated and painful as they are illuminating. In the title story, two sisters fall in love with their math tutor on one of the Gulf Islands, inhabited equally by the ghosts of the misfits and Hollywood stars who came to live there, and the children of an alternative school, run by the girls' criminally optimistic father. In "Sand and Frost," a young girl drops out of UBC, returns home, and discovers that her domineering grandmother is the sole survivor of a shocking act of family violence. In "What Saffi Knows," a child, unable to explain to her self-involved parents, struggles with the knowledge of the whereabouts of another missing child. In these remarkable seven stories, Carol Windley creates a sense of place and of people that breathe the cool wet air of a spring morning on Gabriola Island.
close this panelCarol Windley is the author of the award-winning collection of short stories, Visible Light, and the acclaimed novel, Breathing Underwater. Her fiction has been published in literary magazines across Canada. In 2002, she won a Western Magazine Award for the short story "What Saffi Knows." Born on Vancouver Island, she has taught at Malaspina College, and now lives in Nanaimo with her husband.
close this panel"Home Schooling is nothing short of an exceptional collection of beautiiful words and resonant insights. Evey single story is worthy of reading, and once read, returned to, whether for ambience or intelligence of thought and language. Carol Windley's gift with narrative and images gives truly inspired meaning to the phrase 'creative writing.'" -- The Globe and Mail
"Home Schooling is nothing short of an exceptional collection of beautiiful words and resonant insights. Evey single story is worthy of reading, and once read, returned to, whether for ambience or intelligence of thought and language. Carol Windley's gift with narrative and images gives truly inspired meaning to the phrase 'creative writing.'" -- The Globe and Mail
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