Daring, tough, and darkly humorous, these linked stories have at their centre the relationship between parents and children. As devastating in their emotional honesty as they are poignant and wise, these stories map the intricate terrain of adoption and birth, and look at the lives we make for ourselves in the universal search for who we are. Among them: a girl is abducted by a man claiming to be her father; a distraught mother finds herself fabricating a past for her adopted teenaged daughter; a woman is haunted by her birth mother’s ghostly visitations; a new mother is overtaken by a feeling of alienation as gradually her world becomes as empty as she feels her heart to be. Uniquely imagined, vividly describing the world we inhabit, Can You Wave Bye Bye, Baby? introduces a bold, new literary voice.

Elyse Gasco was born in Montreal. She received a B.A. in Creative Writing from Concordia University and an M.A. in Creative Writing from New York University. Her award-winning collection of short stories, Can You Wave Bye Bye, Baby? was published in 1999 and was the recipient of the QSPELL/FEWQ First Book Award and a finalist for the Governor General's Award for Fiction, the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize, and the Danuta Gleed Literary Award.

Elyse Gasco's profile page

• Short-listed, Governor General's Literary Awards - Fiction
• Winner, QSPELL Award
• Nominated, New York Times Notable Book of the Year

“You will not be able to easily forget [these stories]. You will not escape their wounding light.…Gasco’s hip, a bit fresh. She’s got attitude.…She not only stuns us. She moves us.”
–Montreal Gazette

“Vivid.…Here is an author who demonstrates that the imagination – ‘unfaithful, adulterous and inexact’ – can be a powerful remedy…”
–New York Times Book Review

“Rich, sensual language, a deep vein of humor and a graceful, ironic touch brand this powerful debut collection with Gasco’s brazen talent.”
–Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“[Gasco is a] world-class talent.…She is one of the most brilliant young Canadian writers of the last decade.”
–Globe and Mail