Andrew Hood's debut collection heralds a young talent with an irresistible style and merciless eye. These unapologetic stories deal with an assortment of foolish self-destructive small town anti-heroes. They are unlikely odes and elegies for human shabbiness.A newly-wed conjures a ghost in an attempt to contact her absent husband. A seventeen year old is blackmailed into buying drugs for his English teacher. A tumescent young Blue Jays fan and his tumor-addled sister are swept up in the tempest of the Blue Jays 1989 run for the World Series. An estranged stepmother and stepson embark on a pilgrimage to the Michael Jackson trial.Hoods cleverly wrought lyrical prose is the perfect foil for a prevailing lack of forgiveness, which becomes the overriding monstrosity of each story. Every character wants only to be pardoned, but will not, themselves, grant it.

Andrew Hood is an award-winning author of short fiction, and a rad dude. Both of his works of fiction, The Cloaca (Invisible Publishing) and Pardon Our Monsters (Véhicule), received wide praise, winning him multiple accolades, including the Danuta Gleed Award. Hood lives in Guelph, Ontario.

Andrew Hood's profile page

• Winner, Danuta Gleed Literary Award
• Short-listed, Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction