Somewhere a Long and Happy Life Probably Awaits You explores the peculiar places we look for validation, for purpose, for a life we might recognize as wholly our own. The off-kilter heroes and heroines in Jill Sexsmith's debut collection of short stories find themselves camping in elm trees set to be felled; seeking refuge in a spare bedroom carved out of an opal mine; singing to a stranger on the other side of a bathroom wall. As her characters struggle with relationships, Sexsmith deftly cuts through raw and intimate moments to show how strangely impervious to their desperate circumstances people can be. Witty and unapologetic, the stories in Somewhere a Long and Happy Life Probably Awaits You traverse the everyday and the unexpected to delightful effect.

Jill Sexsmith's work has appeared in anthologies and magazines such as The Fiddlehead and PRISM International. In 2013, The Walrus named her an exciting new voice in Canadian fiction. In 2014, she won the Writers' Union of Canada short prose competition. Jill has an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of British Columbia. Somewhere a Long and Happy Life Probably Awaits You is her first collection of stories.

Jill Sexsmith's profile page

• Short-listed, McNally Robinson Book of the Year
• Short-listed, Margaret Laurence Award for Fiction
• Short-listed, John Hirsch Award for Most Promising Manitoba Writer

Jill Sexsmith's imagination goes where no imagination has gone before. Sexsmith's story collection Somewhere a Long and Happy Life Probably Awaits You breaks all the shackles and runs free with its heart in its fist. Sure-footed, really funny, poignant and wise. Here is the love-child collection of George Saunders and Joy Williams. Move over Miranda July, there's a new voice in town.--Lisa Moore