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Description
Contemporary short story collection exploring privilege, perspective, and contradiction from the celebrated author of Brighten the Corner Where You Are and A Bird on Every Tree.
"Bruneau is a master. We should know this by now."
—Quill & Quire, starred review of A Bird on Every Tree
From the critically acclaimed, award-winning author of Brighten the Corner Where You Are, A Circle on the Surface, and Purple for Sky comes the first collection of short stories since the Thomas Raddall Award—nominated A Bird on Every Tree.
Moving from a worldly insouciance to a reckoning with privilege, the stories in Threshold explore the hypocrisies and contradictions of a world broken by racism, homelessness, and climate change. A woman's grief causes her to see the ghost of her mother in others and in herself; an extended honeymoon cruise has a couple contemplating their gene pools, and their future; and a son's disappearance prompts his parents to study the migratory patterns of herons.
From the piazzas of Naples and Palermo to Halifax's urban wilderness, waterways, and backyards, Bruneau writes with characteristic empathy, humour, and linguistic precision. These luminescent stories reach beyond first-world worries toward compassion and hope, human resilience and the resiliency of nature.
Editorial Reviews
"These are stories of great power and insight. Bruneau illuminates her fictional world with a light so clear and bright that in it we can see into the shadows of our own world, into the usually unuttered spaces between human action and intent, between what we mean to each other and our usually inadequate attempts to articulate that meaning. And the source of that light is Bruneau's powerfully controlled language, never flashy or extravagant, every sentence perfect unto its purpose. Threshold is an admirable and inspiring work."
—Leo McKay Jr., Giller Prize-shortlisted author of Like This and What Comes Echoing Back
"Masterful. With deep heart and deft prose, and a true understanding of the short story form, Bruneau presents characters jostled out of their complacencies and colliding with forces they can neither fully understand nor control. The characters in Threshold, who might easily be your neighbours, are by turns hilarious, petty, loving, and self-absorbed as they blunder, stumble, hop, and fall towards recognition of failure, empathy, love, and, perhaps, grace. As do we. Shall we cross the threshold?"
—Michelle Butler Hallett, Thomas Head Raddall Atlantic Fiction Award?winning author of Constant Nobody
"Carol Bruneau brings you to the threshold of life in every one of her stories. She seeks out the breaking point of our hearts and minds; our internal landscape, against the vibrant panorama of the world and our place in it. This is personal. Halifax is her city, good and bad, and we are incredibly lucky to have such a knowledgeable, nuanced, and endearing voice to bring it to us. She is a marvel. You don't get better than this."
—Lesley Crewe, national bestselling author of Recipe for a Good Life
"In Threshold, Carol Bruneau makes visible those almost imperceptible moments when what one believes, or what is expected, begins to unravel. Nothing, it turns out, is stable. The logic of time, of how things unfold, collides with the truth—that everything will fall apart. In these keenly observant stories, beauty and fear comingle, but Bruneau's protagonists roll with life's little tsunamis because, well, life simply goes on, no matter what."
—Shani Mootoo, Giller Prize'shortlisted author of Polar Vortex
