Winner of the Trillium Award

Pasha Malla's extraordinary stories grant us entry into fascinating worlds: the complex world of children acting out half-understood fantasies of adulthood; the modern world of young couples navigating hairpin emotional turns; a near future world where Niagara Falls has run dry.

The Withdrawal Method is a remarkably inventive, assured, and smart collection from one of our best young writers, one who pairs emotional depth with great technical skill. These extraordinary stories peel back layers to reveal the strange, the wondrous, the unexpected.

Pasha Malla's first collection of short stories, The Withdrawal Method, a Globe and Mail and National Post book of the year, won the Danuta Gleed Literary Award and the Trillum Book Award, and was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Prize (Best First Book, Canada & Caribbean) and longlisted for the Giller Prize. A frequent contributor to The Walrus, the Globe and Mail and CBC radio, he is also the winner of an Arthur Ellis Award for crime fiction, two National Magazine Awards for humour writing, and has twice had stories included in the Journey Prize anthology. He was born in St. John's, Newfoundland, grew up in London, Ontario, and now lives in Toronto, Ontario. His most recent novel is People Park from House of Anansi.

Pasha Malla's profile page

• Winner, Trillium Book Award
• Short-listed, Commonwealth Writers' Prize - Best First Book
• Winner, Danuta Gleed Literary Award
• Long-listed, Scotiabank Giller Prize
• Commended, Globe and Mail Top 100 Best Books of the Year

...Pasha Malla's debut collection signals the arrival of a talented newcomer to Canadian fiction.

Montreal Gazette

...expertly handled...disturbingly credible...[Pasha Malla] never falters with various children's points of view, and his development of these uncontrived plots is seamless...These are strong stories that confront complex, irresolvable moral problems. Definitely worth reading.

matrix

...Pasha Malla's intriguing first short-fiction collection...reveal[s] his tenacious skill...Sophisticated and unpretentious...each story of The Withdrawal Method has been carefully layered to affect the reader in a similarly subtle and profound way, making a lasting impression with its integrity and narrative skill.

Quill & Quire

...devoted to the timeless narrative rewards of the fickle human heart...honest and confident stories...the bittersweet mixture of loss and humour bubble through.

Globe and Mail

...[The Withdrawal Method is] an astonishing and bizarre mix...Pasha Malla is an impressive young voice that gives one hope for a future of new Canadian writing talent...

Globe and Mail

A polished, confident storyteller...An invigorating mix of seriousness, humour, and candour.

Toronto Star

Dazzling debut...written in a language that is fresh and imbued with great feeling.

Globe and Mail

[F]or my money one of the best young writers in Canada [is] Pasha Malla.

Torontoist.com

Like David Foster Wallace and Rick Moody, Malla often asks painful questions, revealing equally painful truths.

Quill & Quire

Malla's technical skills are...reminiscent of Munro...His handling of society's unfortunates is very Barbara Gowdy...Buy The Withdrawal Method.

Vue Weekly

Malla's style is sharp and funny...Malla manages to make us chuckle at the absurdity of life...the collection is amusing and affecting, an accomplished first book by a writer to watch.

NOW Magazine

...display[s] an engaging combination of imagination and emotion....splendidly creative....an absolute gem....Life is anything but ordinary in the hands of this gifted writer.

Vancouver Sun

These stories are weird and wild and wonderful. Funny, too. Pasha Malla has a deft touch.

David Bergen

Pasha Malla's remarkable debut collection The Withdrawal Method is a sign (or warning) of things to come.

The Coast