n this novel about a young heart growing older, Gowdy renders love in its most realist forms — love as longing, love as a desire not just to be with another person, but to be them, love as half-deluded devotion, love as loss. When Louise’s mother leaves her behind with her father, the nine-year-old attaches her heart to her new neighbors, Mrs. Richter and her delicate son, Abel. His inability to love her back becomes a kind of constancy that sustains her into adulthood. Beautifully clear-eyed prose.
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About the Author: Kate Swoger
Kate Swoger is too-rapidly approaching middle age. Following a young woman’s not-so-erotic journey from Montreal to Middle Europe, she settled in Toronto, where she works for CBC Radio. On her last birthday, she decided to write a short story for every month of the year, in an effort to become a published author. Her first story was recently printed in the Vancouver magazine Front, making her instantly immortal.