From the author of the wildly controversial books Liar and Paul's Case comes one of the most anticipated — and perhaps, in some quarters, feared — books of the year. This is author Lynn Crosbie at her most honest, most cutting, most hilarious, and most heartbreaking. The stories told here are at once a cache, a repository, of a seven-year period in the author's life; and, too, a gymnasium, a place where she can flex her prodigious wit and her dazzling stash of literary tricks

Deft with matters both low- and highbrow (here are stories about 80s big-hair bands and the lasting, theological value of the Rocky series; here, too are stories contemplating critical theory and fine art), Life Is About Losing Everything speaks with manic yet grave authority about risking and losing everything, and then sorting through the remains to discover what is beautiful, what is trash, and what, ultimately, belongs.

Poet, author, and novelist Lynn Crosbie was born and raised in Montreal. An award-winning journalist and cultural critic, she has written about fashion, sports, art, and celebrity. She has a Ph.D. in English literature and a background in visual studies; she teaches at the University of Toronto and the Ontario College of Art and Design. Her volumes of poetry and prose include Queen Rat, Dorothy L’Amour, and Liar. She is the author of the controversial book Paul’s Case, about the Paul Bernardo–Karla Homolka murders, as well as the novels Life Is About Losing Everything and Where Did You Sleep Last Night, a Trillium Book Award finalist. Her most recent book is a collection of poems about her father, entitled The Corpses of the Future.

Lynn Crosbie's profile page

... an immaculate mix of humour, drama and beauty ... the book is a feral creature, full of intense love even when it bites.

FASHION

... superb ... absolutely beautiful ...

NOW Toronto

Life is About Losing Everything courageously recounts an ugly side of life.

Toronto Review of Books

Imagine Courtney Love with the benefits of a graduate education, or Kathy Acker slightly gentled by CanLit prettiness and politesse.

Globe and Mail

Should we try to separate fact from fiction? Can we? Provocative, entertaining and poignant, Life is About Losing Everything makes us sweat for the answers.

Vancouver Sun

... raw and honest ... although [Crosbie's] experiences are unique, the themes are universal.

Post City Magazines

... powerful ... Life is About Losing Everything [is] a book that is felt as much as it is read.

Rover Arts

... focused, lucid, and darkly comic ...

Winnipeg Review

... a finely carved, blood-stained shiv of a book, beautiful and brutal ...

National Post

.... brilliant ... [Crosbie] will have even the most hard-boiled reader sobbing.

Edmonton Journal