Home Fires - Softcover

These short stories, written from BC's north coast, unfold mostly at home, and mostly in the family. A woman writes to her sisters, remembering their weddings and her own; a little boy comes home from his paper route early, looking a bit pale; a mother takes her children to Prince George on the train, to stay with their musician dad in a seedy hotel. There are quiet moments in these stories, but quite a few more urgent and hilarious and shocking and desparate moments.

Jean Rysstad was born in southwestern Ontario but moved to Prince Rupert in 1975. Her first collection of short stories, Travelling In was published in 1990. Her short fiction has won such prestigious awards as the CBC Radio literary competition and inclusion in top Canadian anthologies such as The Journey Prize Anthology and Coming Attractions.