This is the first collection of startlingly original stories by a new writer who promises to become a major presence in Canadian literature. At the heart of Zsuzsi Gartner's technically innovative, darkly humorous and exuberant prose is a cri de coeur for personal responsibility as the sun sets on a 20th Century in which media is omnipresent and everyone's a victim. There are no innocent bystanders here, though. A woman calls in fake bomb threats from the 19th floor of a bank tower as revenge against her ex-lover. A man copy-edits a manual on organic extermination while his girlfriend lets a talking fetus know who's the boss. A newspaper editor chokes on death and open-faced chiliburgers during the graveyard shift and insists it doesn't affect her after all. Lured into the wilderness by desire for a man who builds vintage airplanes, a woman finds she lusts more for almond biscotti and city sidewalks. Scouted by the acclaimed novelist Barbara Gowdy, Zsuzsi Gartner dazzles with these nine stories of truly unique literary sensibility.

Zsuzsi Gartner is the author of the critically acclaimed story collection All The Anxious Girls on Earth. A former senior editor at Saturday Night magazine, she is currently creative director of Vancouver Review's Blueprint B.C. Fiction series. She is the winner of a 2007 National Magazine Award for Fiction and the recipient of numerous awards for her magazine journalism. Her stories have been produced on radio in Canada and the U.S. Gartner has lived in Winnipeg, Calgary, Toronto and Ottawa and now lives in Vancouver, a utopian dystopia.

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