Overview

This collection will appeal to readers looking for honest depictions of family, and a changing natural and political environment-subjects which are particularly topical at this time. Award winning author whose short stories appear frequently in such publications as Queen's Quarterly and Fireweed. Potential for interest from academic market as creative writing course textbook. Booksellers familiar with Flood's previous collections, including Red Girl Rat Boy and What Can You Do, will be anticipating this newest addition.

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9781771963411

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Reviews

PRAISE FOR CYNTHIA FLOOD The prose of short story writer Cynthia Flood is sharp, minimalist and concise. Her 2013 collection Red Girl Rat Boy was shortlisted for the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize. Her latest book, What Can You Do, is a collection of 12 short stories that features flawed characters who are emotionally broken and adrift. -Ryan B. Patrick, CBC Books As the fifth collection of short stories from an award-winning author, it's no surprise that What Can You Do is an exceptionally written and thought-provoking read. The twelve stories make up just under 150 pages, and in each one Flood does a masterful job creating a sense of existence for her characters that extends beyond the pages of their story. -Joanna Graham, The Winnipeg Review Cynthia Flood scatters fleeting moments of personal insight throughout the dozen intriguing stories of What Can You Do, her fifth collection. Funnily, though, they're sporadic, unreliable, and not what Flood's characters (or readers) might expect. With characters muddling through or getting by with what life hands them, wisdom of the transcendent clarity variety turns out to be a rare commodity. In understated yet nuanced pieces that are bittersweet, sobering, or chuckle-inducing, the Vancouver-based author introduces a gallery of figures for whom paths fork unexpectedly, plans go awry, and expectations require extensive revising. Still, Flood's characters are managing. And committed to their decisions, as on-the-fly as they might be. -Brett Josef Grubisic, The Vancouver Sun Her latest collection, What Can You Do? (sic) cements her reputation as a gifted and observant storyteller. Technically superb, demonstrating Flood's unstinting grasp of complex, subterranean emotion, these twelve stories tread familiar territory. The haunting Struggle, about a disturbed woman's memories of her activist past, mines the rivalries and chauvinism of far-left politics in 1970s Vancouver. -Trevor Corkum, Toronto Star With rapid-fire narration, power-point prose, and darts of minimalist description, Flood nails her subject. Her characters are impatient to be heard, grabbing your attention, word bullets flying, hope and despair spilling over the pages. -M.A.C. Farrent, The Vancouver Sun

Author Information

Cynthia Flood's stories have won numerous awards, including The Journey Prize and a National Magazine Award, and have been widely anthologized. Her novel Making A Stone Of The Heart was nominated for the City of Vancouver Book Prize in 2002. She is the author of the acclaimed short story collections The Animals in Their Elements (1987), My Father Took A Cake To France (1992), and Red Girl Rat Boy (2013) which was shortlisted for the BC Book Prizes' fiction award and long-listed for the Frank O'Connor award. She lives in Vancouver's West End.

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