The year is 1908, and Mary-Beth Sleaford is a five-year-old girl living in the countryside just north of Toronto. She etches an angel into a tower. Eventually Mary-Beth and her family move west to Saskatchewan, but one day, as an adult, she returns to the tower ruin and discovers that her angel is almost as bright as the day she carved it with a piece of brick.

Hood's heroine, the artist Mary-Beth Sleaford, is a true representative of her age. She embodies the English-Canadian character -- reticent and caught between American exuberance and British reserve. Mary-Beth, in her journey from eastern to western Canada and then back east again, moves from the heights of love and joy to the depths of despair and tragedy, only to rise once more with the promise of newfound fulfillment. There is much of heaven in Be Sure to Close Your Eyes, but there are also glimpses of the darker side of life, and at least one bona fide emotional shocker.

Hugh Hood was born in Toronto in 1928 and studied at the University of Toronto, where he completed his Ph.D. in 1955. He worked as a university teacher for over forty years -- over thirty of those years spent at the Universit? de Montr?al. He was married to painter and printmaker Noreen Mallory and had four children. He died in Montreal in August of 2000.

Hood wrote 32 books, amongst them novels, collections of stories and essays, an art book, and a book of sports journalism. His most extended project, begun in 1975 and occupying him right up until the time of his death, was a twelve volume roman fleuve entitled The New Age / Le nouveau si?cle. The last book in this series, Near Water, was published by Anansi in 2000.

Hugh Hood's profile page