THE ART OF BURGLARY – a short story collection
by Joan M. Baril
“Joan Baril creates believable characters. They laugh and love and plot and scheme, like your neighbours. This is literary fun. Highly recommended.” ~ Michael Sobota, Journalist and culture critic
PRAISE FOR THE ART OF BURGLARY
“Entertaining, vividly-written and diverse, Janet’s stories will steal your heart making you laugh, cry and sigh but also making you question humanity and social injustice. They’ll linger with you long after the last page. Undeniably, Joan Baril is a damn good storyteller.” ~Sue Blott, author
“Joan Baril has a strong voice, a sure hand, and a very sharp eye; these stories are a revelation.” ~ Joe Fiorito
“Joan Baril’s “The Art of Burglary” pits a child’s innocence against an adult world of class prejudice, unjust social norms, and racism. Janet’s endearing curiosity and wonder encourages readers to celebrate mischief and discovery, to revive their own sense of universal humanity.” ~ John Pringle, author of Spirals
“Young Janet, the part-time burglar, steals our hearts in these insightful humorous stories by award-winning author Joan Baril. Brilliantly and delightfully done!” ~ Ulrich Wendt, author Wolves on the Road
ABOUT THIS BOOK:
Janet Marsden is a resourceful girl with insatiable curiosity and a propensity for bending the rules. With a policeman for a father and a mother with the ‘Gift,’ her life in Thunder Bay is definitely not boring. But she and her friends discover that bending the rules can come with unwelcome surprises when they embark on a series of burglaries to snoop on neighbours. As she becomes a woman, Janet embraces her future—and yet the past follows her, unstable as a cloud, twisted as a labyrinth.
Full of humour and heartbreak, Janet’s stories are intimate coming-of-age vignettes about love, secrets, and social injustice. This collection will strike a chord with readers everywhere, and they’ll want to share it with their friends.
AUTHOR JOAN BARIL, a native of Thunder Bay, Ontario, is a short story writer with ninety pieces published mainly in Canadian literary magazines. She has won many awards for her stories and was nominated for the Journey Prize by The Antigonish Review. She has lead an active literary life including a long running blog, Literary Thunder Bay, and several newspaper columns, including “The Northern Gardener”. The Northwestern Ontario Writer’s Workshop awarded her the Khoui Award for “Outstanding contribution to the literature of Northwestern Ontario.” The federal government awarded her with a citation for her columns on immigrant issues.
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