Short Candles

Short Candles is a novel about possibility, choice and acceptance and is remarkable for its insights into human nature. Opening in the 1960s, it spans some forty years in the life of Suzanne Cardinal, who has the giftor bears the burdenof foresight. While she becomes a visionary to some people in her home town, to her family she is the difficult child who was unable to warn them of an impending death. But Suzanne has little control over the manifestation of her gift. She speaks only when she has a vision and ends by hurting both those she warns and those she does not warn. Suzanne grows up confused, with her mental health in question, as she careens through her youth obsessed with Marc Bolan and the British band T.Rex. Early in the new century, she faces a decision that is the culmination of her internal struggle with freedom and responsibility. In the end it is her understanding of neither, but of love, that guides her.

Rita Donovan is the author of seven books, as well as short stories and essays. Daisy Circus won the Ottawa-Carleton Book Award. Landed won the CAA/Chapters Book Award and was nominated for the Ottawa Book Award. The Plague Saint was nominated for the James Tiptree Award. She lives in Ottawa.