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A ninety-year-old female writer with a storied past encompassing an education by nuns, immersion in the surrealist movement and the onset of war receives news of an unknown grandchild, despite having never had a child of her own. Sopinka's debut.
About the author
Heidi Sopinka is the author of The Dictionary of Animal Languages, which was shortlisted for the Kobo Writing Emerging Writer Prize, and longlisted for the Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Prize. A former environment columnist at The Globe and Mail, she is co-founder and co-designer at Horses Atelier. Her writing has won a national magazine award and has appeared in The Paris Review, The Believer, Brick, and Lit Hub, and has been anthologised in Art Essays. She lives in Toronto.
Summary
We grant men a right to solitude. Why can’t we do the same for women?
Ivory Frame arrives in Paris at the height of the surrealist movement. She falls in with a set of bohemian artists and begins an intense love affair with a volatile, married Russian painter. But this freedom cannot last forever. When the Second World War comes, she is forced to flee, leaving everything she cares about behind.
Years later, as Ivory compiles her last, greatest work — a vast account of animal languages — she receives unexpected news. She is told that she has a grandchild, despite never having had a child of her own.
Inspired by the life of surrealist artist Leonora Carrington, this is a thrillingly elegant yet raw evocation of a woman clawing her way to a creative life.
Additional text
‘Sopinka isn’t just a terrific writer, she’s a great thinker. Her writing has particular sway and grace when she writes about the natural world.’
