Swing in the House paints an utterly contemporary portrait of Canadian families in their most private moments. Anand pulls back the curtains to reveal the unspoken complexities within the modern home, from sibling rivalries to fracturing marriages, casual racism to damaged egos, hidden homosexuality to mental illness. Each of these stories offers a deftly-constructed morality play. In the novella-length title story, a young mother timidly explores the possibilities of an affair to alleviate the suffocation of a loveless marriage, to detrimental effect. In “Indelible Markers,” a girl vacationing in Greece learns that growing up with a schizophrenic father has affected her relationships with men. In “Something Steady,” a lonely, mentally challenged teen vents his anger on a co-worker’s boyfriend. Throughout, Anand’s incisive intelligence, sharp prose, and sly wit infuse dark undercurrents into these seventeen cautionary tales.
These stories are full of undercurrents that disturb the surface, and these disturbances, in their turn, dazzle as they reflect light. Anita Anand is a sensitive observer of human behaviour and, because she is unafraid to explore difficult emotions, her stories reveal–in broad strokes and subtle shadings–glimpses of truth. –Elise Moser, author of Lily and Taylor and Because I Have Loved and Hidden It
This is a wise, assured and wonderfully intelligent collection that announces the arrival of an exciting new talent. –Dennis Bock

A bold and explicit debut novel by one of the most visceral new voices in gay fiction, Andy Sinclair's Breathing Lessons is the story of Henry Moss, a homosexual everyman whose life knows none of the limitations or abuses his predecessors experienced.
When a teenaged Henry came out to his mother, she worried only that he’d be lonely. At the time, he thought her concerns were old-fashioned. Two decades later, he’s had supportive family and friends, he’s well-liked by the athletes who train with him, trusted in his professional life, parties whenever he pleases, and performs all manner of sexual acts with whomever he wants. But as he gets older and, increasingly, the men he sleeps with are married, Henry finds that his mother may have been right. Can he find the lasting intimacy he craves in his life amidst the equal-opportunity freedom afforded by his generation’s openness? Learning to navigate between the two is as delicate as learning to breathe again.
Readers will recognize themselves in these scenes, even when they least want to. I’m not exaggerating when I say that, with Breathing Lessons,Andy Sinclair is doing something no other Canadian writer has done,possibly something no other Canadian writer has dared to do. –Angie Abdou, author of The Bone Cage

In her haunting debut novel, The Umbrella Mender, Christine Fischer Guy transports us to 1950s Moose Factory, where the beleaguered staff of the local hospital are fighting to stem the tide of tuberculosis among the indigenous peoples of the North. At the heart of the novel is Hazel MacPherson, a promising young nurse who finds herself increasingly drawn to the surrounding wilderness, made manifest in the person of a troubled drifter.
Like her heroine, Fischer Guy is equally at home within the walls of the hospital and without. In language rich with sensual detail, she brings Hazel’s dualized experience into sharp focus, evoking the ghostly beauty of an X-ray one moment, the living presence of the Moose River the next. The Umbrella Mender is a gorgeous book— a moving meditation on human frailty, a sensitive portrait of conflicting cultures brought together in an uneasy truce, and a heartbreaking tale of unsanctioned love.— Alissa York, author of Fauna and Effigy
The evocative setting of a TB hospital in remote Moose Factory, a passionate and clandestine love affair, and the irresistible voice of intrepid nurse Hazel join forces to make The Umbrella Mender an absolutely compelling read from start to finish.— Miriam Toews, author of All My Puny Sorrows and A Complicated Kindness
