Description
Book SynopsisIn the thirteen stories that comprise Way Up, Kathryn Kuitenbrouwer''s canvas stretches from downtown Toronto to isolated farms, from the Canadian Shield to Nova Scotia and Europe, and even into outer space. In The Last Magic Forest, she turns her Gothic imagination loose in the bush of Northern Ontario, where tree planters have developed a unique culture. In this wasteland of clear-cutting and scarifying, the concept of nature overturns everything readers (and tree planters) expect. When Kuitenbrouwer takes a Canadian tree planter to Belgium in What Had Become of Us, only the outer topography changes. In the superficially more cultivated European forest, the value and meaning of human life depends on the inner topography the forester brings with her from the Ontario bush. In other stories, Kuitenbrouwer''s characters engage in a continual play with perspective, in a perpetual balancing act.
In an emotional spectrum ranging from corrosive grief to murderous recklessnes
Trade Review
"We have lift-off ... [an] accomplished debut collection ... Typical of Kuitenbrouwer's secondary characters, Yves and Beatrice are substantial enough to fill out a story all by themselves ... galloping imagination and fearless thematic ambition ... tales work their unerring magic ... It's a huge pleasure watching her defy the usual literary gravity." * Globe and Mail *
