Overwhelmed by the illness of his wife Marie-Hélène, Pierre LeBlanc retreats into a hasty affair and recalls the breakup of his youthful relationship with Lorraine that began before the Second World War. He's swamped with memories: how in 1946, he left Massachusetts for his family's ancestral home in Quebec -- a Franco-American trying to escape both the devastation of his memories as a prisoner of war in the Philippines and the English language in which he recalled this experience. Only it's Montreal in 1970, and his wife's illness confronts Pierre with his unspoken terror of suffering and death. While he and Marie-Hélène are living apart, their daughter Danielle struggles to claim her dad's abandoned language and her American roots. Her prodding draws Pierre into an encounter with his first love, a meeting which helps him confront the unspoken sorrows and regrets of his life.

Born and raised in the New York City area, Carole Giangrande now resides in Toronto. Her novella, A Gardener on the Moon, was co-winner of the 2010 Ken Klonsky Novella Contest. She is the author of two novels, An Ordinary Star (2004) and A Forest Burning (2000) and a short story collection, Missing Persons (1994), as well as two non-fiction books: Down To Earth: The Crisis in Canadian Farming (1985) and The Nuclear North: The People, The Regions and the Arms Race (1983). Her most recent novella, Midsummer, was published to literary acclaim in 2014. She’s worked as a broadcast journalist for cbc Radio, and her fiction, articles and reviews have appeared in literary journals and in Canada’s major newspapers. While revising new work, she now comments as The Thoughtful Blogger (a space for interesting books and intermittent reflection), available through her website at http://www.carolegiangrande.com

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