Overview
Longlisted for the 2016 Giller Prize
The stories in The Two of Us focus on pairs, couples, dyads: intense one-on-one relationships. Lovers, spouses, siblings, hairdresser and client, mother and baby, teacher and pupil, girl and fox—these are the characters who animate Kathy Page's stunning new collection. While undergoing medical tests, tending the garden, starving themselves, touring museums, travelling, considering suicide, and falling pregnant, they drive each other towards moments where the true shapes of their lives are glimpsed. With humour, tenderness, and occasionally ruthless observation, Page offers us a sense of who they—and we—might become.
United by her characters' primal desire for intimacy, these stories reflect our yearning for meaningful connection. In doing so, The Two of Us strengthens Kathy Page's reputation as one of the most powerful writers at work today.
Kathy Page
Kathy Page’s works include Frankie Styne and the Silver Man; Alphabet, a Governor General’s Award finalist in 2005; and The Story of My Face, long-listed for the Orange Prize in 2002. Two of her books, Paradise & Elsewhere, 2014, and The Two of Us, 2016, were nominated for the Giller Prize. Born in the UK, she moved to the West Coast of Canada with her family in 2001, and now divides her time between writing and teaching at Vancouver Island University.
Reviews
Praise for The Two of Us
"Kathy Page has often been described as a consummate stylist, a master of craft, a writer's writer. All of which is true... and yet none of these descriptions is sufficient to acknowledge the emotional effect her writing is capable of conveying... [Page has the] ability to convey large swaths of emotion in just a few simple gestures; she runs circles around authors who work twice as hard for half the reward." —The Globe and Mail
"Deceptively expansive short stories...her ability to find little frissons of shock or recognition in situations just this side of mundane marks her as a significant miniaturist..."—Quill & Quire
"The Two of Us contains stories about pairs, couples, dyads?mainly intense one-on-one relationships... [and] her duos are all united by a primal desire for intimacy."—BC Booklook
"...refreshing and true to life."—McGill Daily
Reader Reviews
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