“There is no one to grab. No one to tell. There is only the answer of silence.” Terrifying and vivid, the moments before and after a terrible accident on German roads come back to Margo in sharp, succinct memories.

The short story collection Poached Egg On Toast showcases Itani’s ability to shine a clear light on what it feels like to be an outsider, displaced and disconnected from the world at hand, and how a single, small moment can cause a seismic shift in our emotional landscape. Wickedly funny and unbearably sad, Itani’s stories leave us with a renewed sense of humanity.

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Besides her two previous books of poetry (No Other Lodgings, Fiddlehead, 1978 and Rentee Bay, Quarry, 1983), Frances Itani has published a children's book and co-authored a book of short stories. More recently, Frances Itani, a Member of the Order of Canada, had a spectacular international debut with her first novel, Deafening, which received a Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best Book (Canada and Caribbean Region) and was shortlisted for the 2005 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award; it was a #1 bestseller in Canada. Her second novel, Remembering The Bones, was shortlisted for a Commonwealth Writers’ Prize. Itani’s short story collection, Poached Egg On Toast, won the 2005 Ottawa Book Award and the 2005 CAA Jubilee Award for Short Stories. Itani lives in Ottawa.

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