The Freedom in American Songs: Stories - Softcover

Winter, Kathleen

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1927428734 ISBN 13: 9781927428733

Publisher: Biblioasis, 2014

Synopsis

A Library Journal Key Indie Fiction Title, Fall 2014
A BBC.com Book to Read for October, 2014

Meet Xavier Boland, the untouchable cross-dresser, who walks loose and carefree as an old Broadway tune. Meet Miss Penrice, a lost old woman forced by wartime to parent a child for the first time. Meet a Zamboni mechanic turned funeral porteur, Madame Poirer’s lapdog (and its chastity belt), a congregation of hard-singing, sex-obsessed Pentecostals, and more. With The Freedom in American Songs, Kathleen Winter brings her unusual sensuality, lyrically rendered settings, and subversive humour to bear on a new story collection about modern loneliness, small-town gay teens, catastrophic love, and the holiness of ordinary life.

Praise for Kathleen Winter

"Utterly original." O, The Oprah Magazine

"Absorbing, earnest. . . . Beautifully written." The New York Times Book Review

"Her lyrical voice and her crystalline landscape are enchanting." The New Yorker

"Read it because it's a story told with sensitivity to language that compels to the last page, and read it because it asks the most existential of questions. Stripped of the trappings of gender, Winter asks, what are we?" - The Globe and Mail

"She captures the way the truth both imprisons us and sets us free. . . . Simple, touching, real, absolutely convincing and sympathetic." The Rumpus

"A major writer." Kirkus Reviews, starred review

About this title

From the Back Cover:

The bestselling author of Annabel returns to the short story in a new collection about modern loneliness, small-town gay teenagers, catastrophic love, and the holiness of ordinary life. Meet Xavier Boland, the untouchable cross-dresser, whose walk is loose and carefree as an old Broadway tune; a Zamboni mechanic turned funeral porteur; a congregation of hard-singing, sex-crazed Pentecostals, and more.

About the Author:

Kathleen Winter's debut novel, Annabel, was nominated for the Orange Prize, the IMPAC Dublin Award, and the three biggest fiction prizes in Canada; it won the Thomas Head Raddall Award (2011) and an Independent Literary Award (2010); it was selected as a New York Times Editor's Choice for 2011, became a #1 Canadian bestseller, and has been translated around the world. Winter's first story collection (boYs, 2006) also won numerous Canadian awards. She has an Arctic travel memoir (Boundless) forthcoming in fall 2014. Born in the UK, Winter now lives in Montreal after spending many years in Newfoundland.

About this edition

• Publisher: Biblioasis
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 1927428734
• ISBN 13: 9781927428733
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 224