Russian Dolls
Stories from the Breathing Castle
- Publisher
- Coteau Books
- Initial publish date
- Dec 2016
- Category
- Literary
-
Paperback / softback
- ISBN
- 9781550506952
- Publish Date
- Dec 2016
- List Price
- $21.95
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Where to buy it
Description
From the distinguished W.P. Kinsella comes his final work — a series of linked stories wrapped in a novel. Russian Dolls weaves in and out of the real and imaginary worlds of Wylie, a struggling author and self-proclaimed "unreliable narrator", as he finds and then loses his muse, Christie, in their shared home - aptly named the "Breathing Castle" - in East Vancouver. Woven into the story of their relationship are Wylie's short stories - at once bold, humorous, whimsical and reflective. The mood of the stories ranges from good to bad to worse, depending on his relationship with his muse at the time.
Meanwhile, the stories Christie chooses to tell Wylie about her past are consistently captivating, but are also dark and dangerously inconsistent. Are her stories true? Or is the enticing but erratic Christie simply the better storyteller of the two?
Kinsella remains as thought-provoking and engaging as ever. In Russian Dolls he creates a panorama of dozens of new characters, all struggling to survive at the fringes of modern life, while at the same time he creates an intimate portrait of a man, his typewriter, his lover and his passion.
About the author
W.P Kinsella is one of Canad's best selling and most prolific writers. His novels and short story collections includeDance Me Outside and Shoeless Joe (Field of Dreams), both of which were made into movies, as well as The Dixon Cornbelt League, Box Socials, The Iowa Baseball Confederacy, The Winter Helen Dropped By and If Wishes Were Horses. He has received numerous awards for his work, including the Houghton Mifflin Literary Fellowship and the Order of Canada. He lives in a "new" old house in British Columbia's Fraser Valley.