Floating Like the Dead

Please not that this e-galley will only be available to Canadian readers and reviewers.

In this sharply observed and erotically charged debut collection, Journey Prize-winner Yasuko Thanh immerses us in the lives of people on the knife edge of desire and regret, hungry for change yet still yearning for a place to call home, if only for a little while.

In a story set in 1960s Germany and crackling with sexual tension, a young woman on the verge of making a life-changing decision is sent to work as a homemaker for a farmer and his family while his wife is away. When his dying lover becomes convinced he is being visited by a ghost, a man is forced to confront his own fears about being left behind. In a Mexican resort town where anything goes, a woman searching for a place to belong pushes herself to the limits of love and despair. And in the Journey Prize-winning story "Floating Like the Dead," a group of Chinese lepers spend their last days dreaming of escape after they are exiled to a remote island off the coast of B.C., at the turn of the twentieth century.

Many of the characters in these stories are expats, outlaws, and outsiders, some by choice, others by circumstance. Yet in their struggles to be themselves and to belong, they remind us of our own deepest longings and desires. With this seductive and emotionally compelling collection, Yasuko Thanh announces herself as an exciting new voice in Canadian fiction.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
YASUKO THANH's work has appeared in numerous publications, including Prairie Fire, Descant, PRISM international, and Vancouver Review. The title story, "Floating Like the Dead," won the prestigious Writers' Trust of Canada/McClelland & Stewart Journey Prize in 2009. She was a finalist for the Future Generations Millennium Prize, the Hudson Prize, and the David Adams Richards Prize, which recognizes unpublished manuscripts. She recently received her MFA from the University of Victoria. She has lived in Mexico, Germany, and Latin America, and now lives in Victoria.

Praise for Floating Like the Dead

"Using artfully simple language, Thanh has crafted a story of powerfully resonant emotion with tremendous restraint -- a gift that respects both her characters and her readers."
—Journey Prize jury citation for "Floating Like the Dead"

“Yasuko Thanh is a one-of-a-kind writer who perfectly inhabits the voices of her characters, whether they’re living on the margins or in the shadows of history. No matter where her stories take us, Thanh’s prose shines with true, living detail.”
—Lee Henderson

“A masterful first book: wise, capricious, moving, and exotic. Here’s a dexterous hand guiding characters we won’t soon forget. These stories show us the many routes of the heart.”
—Bill Gaston

“Thanh’s stories arrive as advertised – afloat on gorgeous prose, populated by men and women who hover at edge of life’s grand transitions. A remarkable debut by an observant and talented writer.”
—Michael Turner

"Yasuko Thanh writes with a tiger's eye for detail. Her sentences haunt, images flash like lightning. She is a major talent.”
—Wayson Choy