The Heart Does Break: Canadian Writers on Grief and Mourning

A book in which some of our best writers address their own losses — and help us endure our own… A heartbreaking, comforting and beautiful collection of true stories about grief and mourning from some of Canada’s best known writers. When Jean Baird’s daughter, Bronwyn, died suddenly, Jean’s deep instinct was to turn to books to help her in her time of sudden loss. Although she found that the thoughts of counselors, psychologists, Buddhists, and self-help gurus were perhaps some help, the works that truly reached to the heart of the matter were by literary writers, largely from the UK and the US. Scanning the Canadian landscape, Jean and her husband George Bowering found elegies and tributes, but little from our writers about the person who is left behind to mourn or what it takes to endure grieving. The Heart Does Break — an anthology of twenty original pieces — sets out to fill that gap.

Table of Contents:
Introduction   MAY I BRING YOU SOME TEA? George Bowering Bronwyn Jean Dixon   TASTING MY FATHER Brian Brett Leonard Francis Brett   THE EMBRACE Catherine Bush Raymond Sydney Bush   THERE IS NO GOOD IN A BLACK NIGHT Austin Clarke Gladys Irene Clarke Luke   THE BAGGAGE HANDLER George Elliott Clarke William Clarke   ON THE MATERIAL, or, GAIL'S BOOKS Stephen Collis Gail Victoria Tulloch   THIS GENTLEMAN, bpNichol Frank Davey bpNichol   WAITING TO GRIEVE Endre Farkas Margit Farkas   MY FATHER'S BLUE SKIES Brian Fawcett Duncan Hartley Fawcett   HER GREAT ART Jill Frayne June Callwood   ON PREPARING MY DAUGHTER'S FICTION FOR POSTHUMOUS PUBLICATION Joan Givner Emily Jane Givner   WITHOUT WORDS Hiromi Goto Naoe Kiyokawa and Tiger Goto   JUST CREMATION Marni Jackson Clyde Bruce Jackson   FURIOUS HUNGER Linda McNutt Dorothy James   A YEAR LATER, I AM IN LILAC NOW Erín Moure Mary Irene Moure   THE BLUESMAN Paul Quarrington Mary Ormiston Quarrington   THE ART OF DYING IN PRISON Stephen Reid Paddy Mitchell   GOOGLING THE BARDO Renee Rodin Chompoonut (Jeab) Kobram   WHAT WILL NOT BURY Anne Stone Rob Allen   GOOD GRIEF William Whitehead Timothy Findley     The Contributors Contributors' Credits Permissions

About the Author :
Jean Baird has been an English professor, magazine publisher, consultant for non-profit organizations, and creative director of Canada Book Week for the Writers’ Trust of Canada. George Bowering is a poet, novelist, essayist, critic, historian and editor. In 2002 he was appointed Canada’s first Parliamentary Poet Laureate. He is an Officer of the Order of Canada.

Review :
NATIONAL BESTSELLER   “Read this book — for enlightenment and entertainment, for good writing about a tough subject. If George Bowering’s and Jean Baird’s anthology were a feature film, it would receive innumerable thumbs-up and all the stars.” — The Globe and Mail   “Readers will be struck by the level of emotional honesty. . . . Readers who have mourned the loss of someone dear will find solace and validation within the pages of this anthology.” — Winnipeg Free Press   “It might well prove of comfort to the bereft, if only for the variety of experiences these authors have endured.” — National Post   “A fine and powerful collection that is, in places, impossible to read without crying.” — The Gazette   “All the stories are well written and all are worth reading.” — Ottawa Citizen