"The scar didn't use to show," says Daniel, the narrator of the title story. But scars have a way of manifesting themselves, visually or otherwise, and the stories in this collection illustrate a varied compendium of characters marked in some way by their injuries.

Having lost a breast to cancer, a young woman visits a psychic seeking answers to the questions in her life. A bullied boy finds solace in the arrival of another unfortunate who has attracted the attention of his tormentors. A divorced father attempts to shield his young daughter from the trauma of tragedy. An eight-year-old boy witnesses death for the first time, a massage therapist is unnerved by the discovery he makes about a new client, and a young widow flounders in her struggle to cope with the loss of her husband. These and other characters come to vivid life in stories told with the sensitivity and skill that have earned the author continued critical praise.

DON AKER’S most recent novel is The Fifth Rule, a finalist for the White Pine Award. His acclaimed backlist also includes The Space Between, winner of the Canadian Library Association’s Young Adult Honour Book Award and also shortlisted for the White Pine Award; One On One, winner of the Canadian Authors Association Lilla Stirling Award and nominated for the Hackmatack Award and the Manitoba Young Readers’ Choice Award; and The First Stone, winner of the Ann Connor Brimer Award and the White Pine Award. A former high school teacher, Don lives by the Bay of Fundy in Nova Scotia.

WEB: donaker.com

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