There was much to enjoy here, but I found I couldn't connect with it. I'd read more from this author in the future though.

Highly recommend. This is a good short novel. Tbe characters are well developed.

This is a beautifully written short novel. Each character narrates their chapters and at first the reader maybe confused but keep reading. Clara is a mentally ill women trying to deal with her family and her health. She has written a novel and has contacted a local famous author for help in getting it published. Enjoy

Really enjoyed this book from start to finish. I would highly recommend this book

This was a wonderful book once I had read a bit. I will admit at the beginning I was confused. Maybe because the story drops you right into the middle of four people who each provide narration? But once I was able to start placing people the story bloomed. Clara, of the title, is mentally ill and has an on again off again estranged relationship with her mother and sister. Clara has written a novel and is trying to get a woman to help her publish it secretly so as to keep herself out of the spotlight. Beyond that, I can not tell you about the story without giving away the part that makes it so beautiful. At 160 pages, it is amazing how much takes place in this short story.

Amazing book! The prose is stunning and the exploration of Clara's mental illness is thoughtful and deliberate. Really enjoyed the interconnected stories and different voices. Set in Toronto which will make it a great book to recommend for local reads at TPL. Wonderful!

We first view Clara through her sister, Julia's, eyes, but it's Clara's own narrative that lets us see the seriousness of her mental illness. Clara has written a novel about a woman, an immigrant, descending into madness. It's an important work, according to the writer to whom she entrusts the manuscript, who agrees to Clara's request that she shepherd the book to publication without Clara's involvement or her name. The writer is undergoing her own challenge, the months-long rehabilitation of her shattered leg. Other characters, all inter-connected, are also dealing with the aftermath of a significant life event--an aging mother's transition to a nursing home, the trauma of a pair of lovers from a freak accident that resulted in the death of an observer. The author's language is compassionate in its lack of judgment, whether of Clara's condition or of the ways in which each of her other characters deals with their particular ordeal.

If Clara is a discerning and elegant novel that explores the complexities of family, friendship, and memory. Baillie suggests that although we may not suffer from Clara's debilitating burden, modern life's unexpected events arouse our deepest anxieties, and leave us to deal with them in humanly imperfect ways.