The Letter Opener
- Publisher
- HarperCollins Canada
- Initial publish date
- Mar 2012
- Category
- Literary
-
eBook
- ISBN
- 9781443403238
- Publish Date
- Mar 2012
- List Price
- $11.99
-
Hardback
- ISBN
- 9780002006071
- Publish Date
- Feb 2007
- List Price
- $32.95
-
Paperback / softback
- ISBN
- 9780002008945
- Publish Date
- Feb 2008
- List Price
- $22.99
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Description
Naiko works in the Undeliverable Mail Office where, immersed in things lost and missing, she searches for clues to match undeliverable mail with addresses. Her job allows her to achieve a semblance of order in a disorderly world. It is a shock, then, when Naiko’s co-worker Andrei, an enigmatic Romanian refugee, suddenly vanishes.
This astonishing debut novel unfolds in compelling, delicately wrought layers. Naiko’s shifting understanding of Andrei’s past becomes an opaque reflection of her own existence, and objects—from the pens hoarded by Naiko’s mother in her retirement home to the personal effects of Jewish women that Andrei’s grandmother sorts through at Birkenau—become touchstones for memories and meaning, loss and love.
About the author
KYO MACLEAR was born in London and grew up in Toronto as the only child of a foreign correspondent. Her father reported on some significant world events, including recording the first interviews with American POWs in North Vietnam. While Stray Love is entirely a work of fiction, it is informed by her experiences living with her father. Her first novel, The Letter Opener (2007), was awarded the K.M. Hunter Artists Award and shortlisted for the Amazon/Books in Canada First Novel Award. Maclear is also an award-winning visual arts writer and the author of two children’s books: Spork (2010) and Virginia Wolf (2012). Visit her online at www.kyomaclear.ca.
Awards
- Unknown, OLA Evergreen Award
