What We All Want

Berry, Michelle

ISBN 10: 0679310770 / ISBN 13: 9780679310778

Published by Random House Canada, 2001

About this Item

To our USA customers. We ship to the USA via "Deliver Duty Paid" shipping options. This means that there will be no duty or tariffs that you need to pay on your purchase! We're always buying collectible book collections. Contact us for details. We're happy to provide pictures of all books, please just ask! Canadian first edition, first printing. Contains number line 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10. Virtually no wear to jacket. Jacket is NOT price clipped. Covers are clean and bright. Edges are sharp. No tears or creases. The book itself is in Near Fine condition. The binding is straight and tight. NO remainder mark.

Seller Inventory # sku520010652

Bibliographic Details

• Title: What We All Want
• Publisher: Random House Canada
• Publication Date: 2001
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0679310770
• ISBN 13: 9780679310778
• Binding: HARDCOVER
• Edition: First Edition.
• Condition: Fine
• Dust Jacket Condition: Near Fine
• Weight: 15 ounces

About this title

Synopsis

With swift prose and acerbic observation, Michelle Berry's first novel is an incisive yet tender portrait of suburban strangeness. Three siblings gather to bury their mother, Becka, a bedridden agoraphobic. Billy and Thomas fled their mother's fearfulness long ago, but Hilary remained at home to care for Becka. Hilary's isolation has led to a few eccentricities of her own.The splintered siblings are all keepers of secrets. Disgruntled and often drunk, Billy is hiding his recent unemployment from his fleshy wife and pregnant teenage daughter. Thomas has been hiding his partner of fifteen years. And now Hilary has a dark, pressing secret—one that is fuelling her desire to bury her mother in the backyard where she can keep an eye on her.Fumbling his way through the chaos of the siblings is Dick Mortimer, the bizarrely sympathetic funeral director and former childhood sweetheart of Hilary's. Hilary and Dick's reunion is a rekindling of possibility and a release from the past. Together they convince Thomas and Billy to give Becka a curious funeral, culminating in an unusual backyard barbecue. Uniquely comic with a tragic edge, What We All Want gives us a warped world in which salvation comes unexpectedly and sweetly.

About the Author

Michelle Berry is the author of two critically acclaimed short story collections, How To Get There From Here (Turnstone Press, 1997) and Margaret Lives in the Basement (Somerville, 1998). She has published short fiction in magazines and journals throughout Canada, is a reviewer for The Globe and Mail and Quill and Quire, teaches at Ryerson University and also serves on the Board of PEN. Berry lives in Toronto.