It's a bonkers season for launches and readings here at the Bookshelf, and we really couldn't have gotten off on a better foot than we did with Mary Swan. Last night, the eBar was stuffed to the gills with family, friends, and fans who came out to celebrate Mary's new novel, My Ghosts. Seeing the space that full and alive is just about the best reminder of what we've been striving to do at The Bookshelf for the past forty years: celebrate the hell out of authors and artists (local or otherwise) and connect them with the community.
The fall is likewise a busy release season. There's an embarrassment of great new titles coming into the store on a daily basis. For me, My Ghosts really stands out. Mary's first book, the Scotiabank Giller-nominated The Boys in the Trees, used a community's worth of lives to digest a single, confounding crime. In My Ghosts Mary continues to challenge linear narrative, telling the story of family expansion over a decade while also exploring the meaning and implications of time, of heritage, of stories, and of how all three can shape a person. Mary's storytelling is subtle, complex, and always compelling. The book is like nothing else, but always feels familiar—familial, even.
The success of an individual in a community can't help but rub off on that community, and certainly everyone left last night's reading a little bit buffed by Mary's achievement.
- Andrew
Bookshelf Home
No comments:
Post a Comment