Dreaming in Daylight

Rose Shiner’s father, Leo, a one time carnival barker and opera producer prefers Puccini’s world to his own, peddling dinette sets to the ‘bilik’ furniture trade in the Midwest. Belle, Rose’s mother, fights debilitating depression, desperate to step up from her youth on the freezing Canadian prairie to a suburban castle. Rosie struggles mightily to grow in this shadow world, fighting through nightmares to find dreams steady and safe enough to sustain her in daylight.

"Susan Merson locates the reader squarely inside her characters hearts and minds, pinning down moments where the human condition… her narrative voice is beautiful, luxurious, poetic. Merson creates a completely realized universe; she brings her readers effortlessly inside the tapestery of human condition as she considers it." —Barbara Bottner, Author, Ray and Nelda

"Mersonʼs writing catapults us into the early sixties with such a sense of authenticity, beauty, and grace. A natural storyteller with an actor's ear for voice and character, Merson's prose hits the reader in the center of the heart and leaves them with the feeling of having traveled a great distance to find themselves in their very own backyard." —Jamie Cat Callan, Author