Bad Imaginings

Winner of the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize and shortlisted for the Governor-General’s Award for fiction and the Commonwealth Writer’s Prize, Caroline Adderson’s short fiction collection travels far and wide. From adolescent brothers marooned at an indifferent relatives cottage, to a Depression-era Ukrainian immigrant reading the drought-parched skies above Palliser’s Triangle, to two friends trying to make sense of feminism in the eighties, Adderson captures her characters’ cadences, conflicts, and consolations, their individual burdens and the mysteries they share. Adventurous, often funny, and impeccably researched, these stories chart their lives with compassion and intelligence.

AUTHOR

Caroline Adderson

Caroline Adderson is the author of four novels (A History of Forgetting, Sitting Practice, The Sky Is Falling, Ellen in Pieces), two collections of short stories (Bad Imaginings, Pleased To Meet You) as well as books for young readers. Her work has received numerous prize nominations including the Sunday Times EFG Private Bank Short Story Award, International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, two Commonwealth Writers’ Prizes, the Scotiabank Giller Prize longlist, the Governor General’s Literary Award and the Rogers’ Trust Fiction Prize. Winner of two Ethel Wilson Fiction Prizes and three CBC Literary Awards, Caroline was also the recipient of the 2006 Marian Engel Award for mid-career achievement.

Reviews

Praise for Bad Imaginings

“Bad Imaginings is the sort of book that stays with a reader long after it has been closed. A singular book, deep and mature. Caroline Adderson deserves congratulations.”—Globe & Mail

“There is very little in Adderson’s first short story collection that is not excellent . . . Each of these stories is accomplished in its own unexpected way; I find it impossible to pick a favourite.” —Quill & Quire

“Astonishing . . . Adderson writes from so many perspectives that she seems to pirouette over territory that few writers would dare approach . . . These often funny and always adventurous stories are deeply felt and wildly imagined tributes to our own fragile, blinkered lives. And they fulfill the only real condition of art: they make you feel richer for having read them.” —The Georgia Straight