The Olive and the Dawn is a collection of short stories exploring with tenderness and hilarity the grey zones of life: the psychological non-space people find themselves once the reference points that shaped their existence suddenly become stripped away. This book contains a cast of characters who exploit glitches in the human design, who confront an equally fallible God, asserting, contrary to popular belief, that unwavering self-destruction is the very essence of humanity. Orti reveals a world where even good choices come with bad consequences, childhood sports heroes make more sense than Jesus, and God is no less of a bully than the month of November.

Ian Orti's profile page

Ian Orti is the author of The Olive and the Dawn . He is a columnist for Matrix Magazine and his work has appeared in Filling Station, The Toronto Quarterly and VICE Magazine.

Winner of the CBC Bookclub Award

"A haunting novella...Orti has constructed a dark, enticingly murky tale that might or might not be a romance. The book is deceptively rich and complex in form and imagery despite its comparative brevity." - Bookgaga

"Read this magical tale for beauty, pure and simple." -&nbspThe Coast

"...Weirdly seductive, sharply rendered. This strange city and its lost souls don't easily leave the mind." -Jim Bartley The Globe and Mail

Ian Orti's writing is replete with arresting images... [his] debut novel is unlike anything I've read before. -Kate Watson, Atlantic Books Today