Is it the dust of death, blowing across a Mediterranean island, and etched by the footprints of a small boy who seems to be a disturbing emblem of his parents' unhappy marriage? Or the fine, but offending dirt that is dealt with so tidily by a diligent hausfrau - almost as tidily as her fellow neighbors rationalize a brutal crime? In Dust to Dust, Timothy Findley is a master of mortality and the powerful, yet often imperceptible bond it forges with memory and reality.

In this brilliant new collection of short stories - his first since the highly acclaimed Stones - Timothy Findley weaves his storytelling spell around a thematically linked collection of stories that move. literally, from dust to dust. Readers will remember Vanessa Van Home, the elderly detective from The Telling of Lies, now involved in a murder mystery where a corpse confounds the line between the magical and the mundane. And the unforgettable Rosedale couple from Findleys "Minna and Bragg" stories, who reappear in two more haunting tales. In the stories that make up "All Must Come to Dust," we are taken into the ancient cultures of Europe, and there confronted by our preconceived notions of what constitutes history and memory.

Each work in Dust to Dust is a beautifully rendered showcase for Timothy Findley's immense talent in evoking a time, a place and a mood. With their European settings, these stories render a territory formerly unexplored by Findley in his Short Fiction repertoire.

Timothy Findley (1930-2002) was one of Canada's most compelling and best-loved writers. He is the author of The Wars, which won the Governor General's Award and established him as one of Canada's leading writers, as well as Pilgrim and The Piano Man's Daughter, both finalists for The Giller Prize. His other novels, Headhunter, The Telling Of Lies, The Last Of The Crazy People, The Butterfly Plague, Famous Last Words, Not Wanted On The Voyage, and Spadework; his novella, You Went Away; and his short fiction, Dinner Along The Amazon, Stones, and Dust To Dust, have won numerous awards and are well loved both in Canada and internationally.

Elizabeth Rex won the Governor General's Award for Drama and The Stillborn Lover won a Chalmers Award. His works of non-fiction include Inside Memory and From Stone Orchard.

Timothy Findley was made an Officer of the Order of Canada and a Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.

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