Naked under a tattered shower curtain, fifteen-year old Tracey Berkowitz has been sitting in the back of a bus for two days, looking for her brother, Sonny, who thinks he is a dog. Tracey's stories begin to twist and intertwine truth with lies, absorbing the reader into the games and delusions she uses to escape her despair.

The Tracey Fragments is a raw, moving account that immerses the reader into the labyrinth of a troubled, adolescent psyche, full of twists and turns, fear and uncertainty, trust and betrayal.

Maureen Medved adapted her novel into a film screenplay that was directed by acclaimed filmmaker Bruce McDonald. At the Berlin Film Festival in early 2007, the motion picture won the Manfred Salzgeber Prize for an innovative film that broadens the boundaries of cinema.

Maureen Medved is a novelist, screenwriter, and playwright as well as an Associate Professor in the Creative Writing Program at the University of British Columbia. She has written essays on television and film for the magazine Herizons. Medved’s writing has won and been nominated for a number of awards. Her work has been distributed and performed world-wide. Her novel The Tracey Fragments was first published in 1998 by House of Anansi Press. Maureen’s plays have been produced in Vancouver, Waterloo, and Toronto, and her writing has been published in literary journals and magazines. Anansi published a film tie-in edition to coincide with the Canadian release of the film in Fall 2007, and Les Allusifs has published a French language version of the book. (The French language edition won a 2008 Governor General’s Literary Award for Translation.) Bruce McDonald directed Medved’s screen adaptation of The Tracey Fragments starring Ellen Page, which opened the Panorama program of the 57th annual Berlin International Film Festival and won the Manfred Salzgeber Prize. The film has gone on to feature at a number of international film festivals, screened at moma and has also garnered other nominations and awards, including a Genie Award nomination for Adapted Screenplay. In 2009, Medved received the Artistic Achievement Award from Women in Film and Television, Vancouver. Black Star is Medved’s second novel; Anvil will be publish Medved’s third book, her essays on television and film, in 2019. Maureen is currently working on a new novel.

Maureen Medved's profile page

A high-octane jaunt through the remnants of a mind shattered by trauma.

Globe and Mail

Medved's debut novel provides an eerie glimpse of a raging adolescent psyche...skillfully blends Tracey's frenzied facts and fictions into a cohesive portrait of a teenager on the verge of imploding...a taut, harrowing narrative.

Publishers Weekly

[Medved] mines the world of words for diamonds. They glitter on every page, casting mirrors, casting black light.

Border Crossings

Tracey's voice is acerbic, funny and totally convincing. Anyone who has been or has known a bitter and confused teenager will know where she's coming from.

Toronto Star

Medved brilliantly conveys the rage and frustration of a self-conscious young girl...The effect is like digging through a box full of broken stained glass and finding an exquisite shard every time.

Vancouver Magazine