Ring

THE GLOBE AND MAIL BEST BOOKS OF 2021

CBC BOOKS THE BEST CANADIAN FICTION OF 2021

A fresh take on the romance novel from the Giller Prize–winning author of Fifteen Dogs

From their first meeting, it was clear that Gwen and Tancred were meant to be together. But, as we know, the course of true love never did run smooth.

Gwen’s mother, intuiting that her daughter is in love, gives her a magic ring that has been passed down through endless generations of mothers and daughters. This ring grants its wearer the opportunity to change three things about her beloved. Like all blessings, this may also be a curse.

Ring turns the literary romance upside down and shakes out its pockets. It’s a playful meditation on the past, on magic, on race, on honour, on faith, and, yes, on love.

Following on the heels of Pastoral, Fifteen Dogs, The Hidden Keys, and Days by Moonlight, Ring completes Alexis’s Quincunx, a group of five genre-bending, philosophically sophisticated, and utterly delightful novels.

“A great novel doesn’t try to answer questions, but, like Days by Moonlight, complicates them. ” —The Globe and Mail on Days by Moonlight

“This imaginative travelogue will amuse readers even as it raises weightier issues. ” —Publishers Weekly on Days by Moonlight

“I’m far from being a dog person, but as a book person I loved this smart, exuberant fantasy from start to finish. ” —The Guardian on Fifteen Dogs

“A clever exploration of our essence, communication, and how our societies are organized. ” —Kirkus Reviews on Fifteen Dogs

“Ring raises questions about love, marriage, fidelity, and the divine.” —Canadian Writers Abroad

“A tour de force by an accomplished writer, Ring reminds us there are still mysteries in the world that are well worth exploring.” —Necessary Fiction

AUTHOR

Andre Alexis

André Alexis is the author of two novels (Childhood and Asylum), two books of short stories (Despair and Other Stories of Ottawa and Beauty and Sadness), a children’s book (Ingrid and the Wolf) and a number of plays (Lambton Kent, Name in Vain, Fidelity). He was a contributing book reviewer for the Globe and Mail, and has worked extensively in radio, having been the host/writer of CBC Radio One’s Radio Nomad, and CBC Radio 2’s Skylarking.

Reviews

“Told with a sense of inevitability and fate, Ring is an enchanting and sophisticated fable in which love is transformative.” —Forward Reviews

“André Alexis, the wildly inventive Canadian author who gives me very strong Percival Everett/ Colson Whitehead vibes.” —Josh Cook (Porter Square Books)

“… Alexis’ Quincunx sequence [is] one of the boldest, most audacious, and most satisfying achievements in recent literary memory.” —Toronto Star

If any book is highly anticipated this year, it’s Alexis’s “Ring,” the final in the quincunx, the series of five books he planned, each in a different genre — pastoral, apologue (“Fifteen Dogs,” for which he won the Giller Prize and other awards), travel narrative (“Days by Moonlight” won the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize), mystery and, now, romance. “Ring” is a “meditation” on love that includes, naturally, a long narrative poem about Aphrodite, along with Alexis’s engaging, precise and funny writing. —Toronto Star (35 books you need to know about in fall 2021)

“Ring raises questions about love, marriage, fidelity, and the divine.” —Canadian Writers Abroad

“Alexis churns up a consistent supply of wry, pithy lines (‘People fall out of respect as easily as they fall out of love’) while maintaining the tension between the threat and hope that the ring offers … [a] pleasantly unusual outing.” —Publishers Weekly