The Unfinished Child (42 page)

by Lee Kvern

On a Wednesday in July 1961, Jacqueline Burrows begins her day perched on the cool concrete of her front steps, smoking. Jacqueline is the mother of three children, including her sweet, difficult daughter, Sylvie. It's only 7:00 AM, but Jacqueline's children are awake and tearing through the neighborhood.

In a story that deals with the extraordinary challenges of raising a child with severe special needs,
The Matter of Sylvie
traces the course of Jacqueline's Wednesday, a life-shifting day. The mother's impulses, combined with the stress of her other young children and the absence of her police officer husband, culminate in an event that echoes into the next two decades. A familial triptych: as the fate of one child resounds in the individual, pivotal Wednesdays of both Jacqueline's husband, Lloyd, in February of 1973, and her adult daughter, Lesa, in October of 1987.

Three Wednesdays, three decades, three narrators whose lives are intricately woven in this novel of dark and light.
The Matter of Sylvie
explores the depths of mother, father and daughter-and ultimately, the matter of Sylvie herself.

by Ann Eriksson

Winner of the Silver Medal for Western Canadian Fiction at the 2011 Independent Publisher (IPPY) Book Awards

Sometimes it’s the little things in life that make all the difference, like chromosomes, sperm, bugs or an endangered seabird that nests in old-growth forests. But, what’s big or what’s little depends entirely on your perspective. Faye Pearson is a three-and-a-half-foot tall female scientist doing entomological research in the tallest trees on Vancouver Island, who is pit with a ragtag group of protesters against the might of a multinational logging corporation.

The story of Faye and her struggle to function in a world not made for people her size is poignant and heart-warming. Whether she is lusting after her climbing partner, standing up to a conflicted logging boss, dressing down an insulting interviewee, nurturing a wayward child in the midst of an environmental standoff, or being carted off under the arm of a Mountie, you’ll be unable to resist this amazing woman. There is a fall in Eriksson’s novel, but also incredible moments of grace.
Falling from Grace
is a novel of no small achievement.

by Theresa Kishkan

With
The Age of Water Lilies
, Theresa Kishkan has written a beautiful novel that travels from the time of colonial wars to the pacifist movement to 1960s Victoria, and shares a unique and delightful relationship between 70-year-old Flora and 7-year-old Tessa.

When Flora Oakden leaves her English home in 1912 for the fledgling community of Walhachin in British Columbia’s interior, she doesn’t expect to fall in love with the dry sage-scented benchlands above the Thompson River-and with the charismatic labourer who is working in the orchard. When he and all the men of Walhachin return to Europe and the battlefields of France, Flora remains behind, pregnant and unmarried. Shunned by those remaining in the settlement, she travels west to Victoria and meets freethinker Ann Ogilvie, who provides shelter for her in a house overlooking the Ross Bay Cemetery. Fifty years later, among the headstones of Ross Bay, curious young Tessa is mapping her own personal domain when her life becomes interwoven with that of her neighbour, the now-elderly Flora. Out of their friendship, a larger world opens up for these unlikely companions. Theresa has written a sweeping story that transcends time and springs from a passionate exploration of the natural world, its weather, seasons and plants.