Susan Zettell: 3 books

The stories in Night Watch, a new collection from Susan Zettell, delve deep into dark waters. Zettell looks unflinchingly at life's bountiful sorrows: the loss felt by abandoned children, the sudden intrusion of sickness or death, the fierce love suffered by the mother of a troubled child, the journey...

Holy Days of Obligation is a collection of short stories which weaves together the family history of a working-class Catholic family. Set in industrial Ontario, the stories are narrated by Bertie, who is the oldest of nine children. Bertie uneasily straddles two worlds: that of her parents, Frank...

It's 1970, and the optimism of Trudeaumania is giving way to fears of wage and price controls. In Varnum, Ontario, where the smell of industry is the smell of money, a lot of that money's heading south just like Bobby Orr. The Checkout Girl is the story of Kathy Rausch, whose life these days is something...