Fables of Brunswick Avenue: Stories — Katherine Govier

"Everyone lives on Brunswick Avenue sooner or later." So begins Fables of Brunswick Avenue , Katherine Govier's first collection of short stories, which found her an audience that has expanded with each subsequent book. The 16 stories in this collection capture turning points in the lives of characters who have migrated to the city, and ended up -- as everyone inevitably does -- on Brunswick Avenue. A restaurateur in "The Garden" collects look-alike waitresses but discovers that, as one, they resist his advances. In "Responding to Pain," a woman rescues a suicidal friend, only to realize that she is angry enough to kill her. And in "Brunswick Avenue," a writer comes to understand that her neighbourhood is provisional, and in its draft stages, like her life. Infused with Govier's magical ability to conjure time and place, Fables of Brunswick Avenue is about starting out, and starting over.