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Mary Lou Dickinson and Joan Spencer Olson -- Reading and Signing

Thursday Jun 04 2015 7:00 pm, Saskatoon, Travel Alcove
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An evening of with Mary Lou Dickinson, author of Would I Lie to You? (Inanna Publications) and Joan Spencer Olson, author of Prairie Initiation: A War Bride Story (Benchmark Press)

Who is a family and how do we create one? In Would I Lie to You?, Mary Lou Dickinson artfully explores the effects of hidden pregnancies from days long past, what happens when mothers and birth children search for each other, and the painful reality of secrets hidden under the veneer of polite society that can affect families for generations. The author of critically-acclaimed books One Day It Happens and Ile d’Or, Mary Lou Dickinson’s fiction has been published in numerous literary publications and broadcast on CBC Radio. Her writing was included in We Who Can Fly: Poems, Essays and Memories in Honour of Adele Wiseman.

Winner of the 2001 John V. Hicks Award, Prairie Initiation: A War Bride Story is based upon an English war bride’s experience as she struggled to adapt to her new life in Canada, following World War II. Like many other war brides, Joan Spencer Olson left behind family, friends and country when she traveled by boat to Canada. There, she settled on her husband's family farm in Saskatchewan. The result of her experience adapting to prairie life is this novel, which Joan dedicates to all war brides and hopes it will help others facing similar challenges. She lives with her son in Regina.

See:

Would I Lie to You?

- Mary Lou Dickinson

Trade paperback $22.95
Reader Reward Price: $20.66

After ten years of marriage, Sue and Jerry would say they know everything about each other. But each harbours a significant secret. When Jerry becomes ill and it's apparent he's dying, Sue visits a psychic, Hans, who tells her there is someone like a son in her life. She dismisses this, but at Jerry's funeral his son turns up--a son Sue didn't know existed. At first Sue feels betrayed by Jerry, but gradually she accepts her own complicity. And she regrets never telling him, or anyone else, about the baby girl she gave up for adoption when she herself was only sixteen. Encouraged by Hans and a relative of Jerry's, Sue starts looking for her daughter and relying more on Hans, who is also struggling with troubles in his own marriage. The novel deals with family secrets, social issues, relationships, and psychic insight. It confronts what happened when pregnancies were kept secret many years ago, what happens when mother and birth child look for and either find, or do not find, each other. It also explores the reality of family secrets, huge issues that are kept quiet under the veneer of polite society and that affect the individuals and families involved for lifetimes, even generations. In some ways, the novel also raises the question of who is family and how do we create one.