"Whole minutes passed when I didn’t think of my man and the swimming lesson set up for the next day, if no one was murdered before then, or the cars stopped, or a bomb go off somewhere… On a hot, humid Monday afternoon in July 1919, Maeve Curragh watches as a blimp plunges from the sky and smashes into a downtown Chicago bank building. It is the first of ten extraordinary days in Chicago history that will forever change the course of her life. Racial tensions mount as soldiers return from the battlefields of Europe and the Great Migration brings new faces to the city, culminating in violent race riots. Each day the young Irish immigrant, a catalogue order clerk for the Chicago Magic Company, devours the news of a metropolis where cultural pressures are every bit as febrile as the weather. But her interest in the headlines wanes when she catches the eye of a charming streetcar conductor. Maeve’s singular voice captures the spirit of a young woman living through one of Chicago’s most turbulent periods. Seamlessly blending fact with fiction, Mary Burns weaves an evocative tale of how an ordinary life can become inextricably linked with history. "

Mary Burns grew up near Chicago and emigrated to Canada during the Vietnam War years. A former journalist and documentary filmmaker, she is the author of several stage plays, numerous radio plays and seven books, including the Literary Press Group’s Writer’s Choice, Suburbs of the Arctic Circle, and The Private Eye: Observing Snow Geese, shortlisted for the Science in Society Book award. Talon published her collection of short stories, Shinny’s Girls, and a trilogy of novellas, Centre/Center. Her most recent novel is The Reason for Time, historical fiction set in the turbulent “Red Summer” of 1919 in Chicago, and listed as a “Must Read” Chicago book. For twelve years she served as chair of Creative Writing at Douglas College where she taught fiction, play writing and personal narrative. She now lives on the Sunshine Coast of B.C. and spends regular time each year in Quebec City.

Mary Burns' profile page

“The story is both fevered and thoughtful as the days unfold, a well-paced work that ebbs and flows with just the right amount of tension…Maeve’s voice has a distinct rhythm all its own, which…lends the story a rich authenticity. Maeve herself feels real as well, a complex character full of hope and savvy…A spirited, spunky young woman, Maeve is not perfect. But she is likable, and her story is compelling…Full of history, local color, compelling characters, and a complex storyline, The Reason for Time is a quick read, but one that lingers and makes one wonder about the many other stories that could be told of that tumultuous summer of 1919.” —Chicago Book Review