Paul Stevens is a bookseller in the marginalized world of used books, a lover of Flaubert and Dickens, young, unsure of himself - until he meets Judith and is drawn into her secret world.

Matt Cohen was born in Kingston, Ontario in 1942. He received his B.A. and M.A. from the University of Toronto. In the late 1960s he taught political economy at McMaster University before becoming a full-time writer. Since 1969 he has published twenty books, including novels, short stories, poetry and two books for children.

He received critical acclaim for many of his books, notably `The Salem Novels` - The Disinherited (1974), The Colours of War (1977), The Sweet Second Summer of Kitty Malone (1979), Flowers of Darkness (1981), and Emotional Arithmetic (1990). He was short-listed for the Governor General's Award in 1979 for The Sweet Second Summer of Kitty Malone and was a finalist for the 1988 Ontario Trillium Award for his short story collection Living on Water. As well, his short stories have twice won National Magazine Awards, and his books have been translated into Dutch, French and Portuguese.

Matt Cohen died in 1999.

Matt Cohen's profile page

"Vividly observed and arrestingly well written--. An atmospheric, polished, pensive and suspenseful tale." -The New York Times
"Rich with the bittersweet fragrance of autumn and the magic of words." -Vancouver Sun
"A penetrating view of the underside of the human condition that never fails to convince us that there are tragic songs still to be written from that vantage point.... The result is like poetry written on a worn-out dollar bill." -The Montreal Gazette
"Cohen's investigation of unlikely, yet inevitable, human interdependence is wise and sensitive." -Publishers Weekly
"A powerful novel, peopled by a vividly-drawn cast of characters." -London Free Press
"A spare and disturbing meditation on familial obligations and affections.... A concise, chilly work, an unblinking examination of the manner in which love and hate intertwine. Deeply compelling." -Kirkus Reviews