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In this podcast, I’m chatting with Governor General’s Award-winning author, Diane Schoemperlen, about her latest book At a Loss for Words. This is an extremely witty account of a middle aged author who gets dumped by one of the most passive aggressive Mr. Nice Guys in fictional history. The writer documents the love affair and the subsequent breakup, trying to make sense out of how something so sexy turned so sour. She consults her friends, the Zodiac, and does absolutely everything to try and make her runaway lover simply talk to her.

I spoke with Diane Schoemperlen from her home in Kingston Ontario.

Buy At A Loss For Words at amazon.ca chapters.ca

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In this episode, Cathi talks to Tahmima Anam about her first novel, A Golden Age. The story takes place during the turbulent backdrop of the creation of Bangladesh during the 1970s. It follows the fate of Rehana, a young widow with two small children, who has to create a new life for herself amidst the horrors of war. It’s a great read, and a sweeping look at change in a part of the world that few westerners truly know.

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In this podcast interview, I’m talking with British author, Rebecca Gowers, about her first novel When to Walk.

The novel’s heroine, Ramble, a young woman with advanced arthritis and severe pelvic displacement, is unceremoniously dumped by her husband of three years. The husband (a musician who writes background music for film) takes off, leaving Ramble alone with her job: She writes travel copy for exotic places she never visits.  She has the odd get together with Johnson – her best friend – a screamingly funny gay man, and with Mrs. Shaw, the beautiful gangster’s moll who lives downstairs.

This is just a sampling of the superb, hyper-real landscape Gowers has created. I spoke with Rebecca Gowers on the phone from her home in England.

Buy When to Walk at amazon.ca   chapters.ca

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In this podcast, I’m talking to Alice Kuipers about her first novel, Life on the Refrigerator Door – an intriguing story about the ongoing relationship between a mother and her daughter, told through a series of Post It Notes left on a refrigerator.

Claire is a high spirited teenager and her mother is a single parent, who is also a hideously busy obstetrician. There’s the normal parent/child push and pull, but things takes a turn when Claire’s mother is diagnosed with breast cancer and everything changes. I spoke with Alice Kuipers on the phone from her home in Saskatoon.

Buy Life on the Refigerator Door

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This time, we’re slipping into literary mystery territory, with Lauchlin of the Bad Heart.

Lauchlin is a middle aged, former boxer who is forced to return to Cape Breton, after his bad heart pulls him out of the ring. Once home, Lauchlin helps his mother run the family convenience store, and sets about pursuing all the unavailable women on the Island.

Things take a dangerous twist when he takes a fancy to a beautiful, married blind woman who arrives at his store late one night.

Buy Lauchlin of the Bad Heart at amazon.ca or chapters.ca

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In this literary podcast, I’m talking with Frances Itani, author of the award-winning novel, Deafening, about her new book, Remembering the Bones.

Here, Itani assumes the point of view of Georgie, an 80 year old woman who loses control of her car, drives off the edge of a ravine, and ends up flat on her back, pretty much unable to move. While praying for rescue, Georgie begins to think back over the bones of her own life: the strong women, the weak–and all too often absent–men. She also thinks about her grandfather, a middle aged physician who packed it all in to go and fight in the Great War. One of the only things he left behind? A copy of Grey’s Anatomy – a book that becomes Georgie’s guide for life.

I spoke with Frances Itani at the Park Hyatt hotel in Toronto.

Buy Remembering the Bones: amazon.ca or chapters.ca