Cocktail

Description

Winner of the 2023 Danuta Gleed Literary Award Longlisted for the 2024 Carol Shields Prize for Fiction Winner of the New Brunswick 2023 Mrs. Dunsters Award for Fiction One of theGlobe and Mails Sixty-Two Books to Read This Fall Listed inCBC BooksFiction to Read in Fall 2023 AMiramichi ReaderBest Book of 2023 ATyeeBest Book of 2023A writer to watch.Kirkus Reviews(starred review)A girl receives a bedtime visit from a drunken party guest, who will haunt her fantasies for years. A young mother discovers underneath the wallpaper a striking portrait that awakens inconvenient desires. A divorced man distracts himself from the mess hes made by flirting with a stranger. These intimate, immersive stories explore lifes watershed moments, in which seemingly insignificant detailsa pot of hyacinths, a freshly painted yellow walland the most chance of encounters come to exert a tidal pull. Set in the swinging sixties and each decade since,Cocktailreveals the schism between the lives we build up around us and our deepest hidden selves.Praise forCocktailLisa AlwardsCocktailis skillful in its ability to capture the nuance and details of daily life in a way that is striking and deeply felt. With beautiful, precise descriptions and expert pacing, she effortlessly reveals tensions that feel both classic and utterly her own.Exploring the emotional and sexual tensions of couples and families in the Sixties and Seventies, these narratives bring the reader to the core of those unspoken moments, leaving us unsettled. The clarity of sound in Lisa Alwards sentencesword after word after wordmakes it impossible to turn your ear away. This is a quiet voice that booms.Danuta Gleed Literary Award Jury CitationWith a coolly dispassionate voice, Alward views the small horrors of domesticity . . . and turns them into stories whose implications reverberate far beyond the walls of any home.Kirkus Reviews(starred review)A Canadian writer to watch.Deborah Dundas,Toronto StarThroughout Lisa Alwards debut story collection, deceptively unassuming items. . .prompt a diverse cast of characters to reflect on events that have changed their lives . . . Alwards sure-footed writing ably steers readers through stories about injuries, marriages, new parenthood, and other watershed moments.Literary Review of CanadaThis collection of twelve pristine short stories might best be described as small snapshots of lives shadowed by disquietude. The writing is crisp, accomplished and assured, and the characters are vividly and sympathetically drawn, as they experience the emotional convolutions of individuals struggling between that which they believe to be right and that which they desire.Miramichi ReaderThe winner of this years Danuta Gleed award, this collection is absolutely masterful. When a writer writes with such precision and authorial control, its such a joy to read their work. Theres a stylistic elegance that I admire so much, the way that Alward disrupts domesticity, the tensions inherent in her stories, her expert pacing and her beautiful descriptions are all incredibly impressive.49th ShelfLisa Alward has succeeded in producing a collection that is completely enjoyable.Winnipeg Free PressAlwards stories teem with vividly honest portraits of human relationships, and her writerly insight lies in clearly seeing our blind spots.The FiddleheadCocktail, her first book, is a knockout collection of short stories that will stay with you long after youve finished reading. The stories are told with a wise attention to craft and the human condition that upends expectations, holding a mirror to the darkness, despair and desire that live in every person.The TyeeComprised of exceptional works of literary and emotional precision,Cocktailshowcases author Lisa Alwards genuine and imaginative flair for the kind of narrative driven storytelling style that is as engaging as it is memorable.Midwest Book ReviewLisa AlwardsCocktailis a memorable collection for its characters, settings, and artistic prowess. From the macro aspects of storytelling like character and setting development to the micro levels of writing poignant lines to capture allegories in unexpected ways, Alward shows off her talent at every turn.FreeFall MagazineFireflies glow brightly then extinguish themselves, leaving only the ghost of a trace to mark their passage. The stories in Alwards collection are similarly evanescent, but their potency lies in their precise style and compactness. This is a collection to savour.Steven Beattie,That Shakespearean RagThese are stories about houses and the secrets they hold, about fractured families and the limits of family lifethe end of childhood, a marriage unravelled.Pickle Me ThisAlward sets her protagonists down at personal crossroads so astutely observed that it is impossible to look away. We watch with hope, amusement, and dismay, but alsoand this is her uncanny power as a storytellerwith the disquieting sense that we, too, have been caught in the mirror.Anne Marie Todkill, author ofOrion SweepingThe stories in Lisa AlwardsCocktailare small wonderments, marked by their intense focus on the telling interplay between wives and husbands, children and parents, and intimate strangers that recalls the early work of Alice Munro.Craig Davidson, author ofThe Saturday Night Ghost ClubAlward looks deep into the soul of each character in this debut collection of stories and finds desire, despair, fear, and yearning. From the eyes of a young girl witnessing the foibles of the adult world at her parents cocktail party to a new mother seeking validation from a hired house painter to the competitiveness of mothers in a playgroup, each story blossoms into a compassionate examination of the pain of owning an inner life. Alwards close attention to detaila color, a flower, the ice in a cocktail glassadds delicate shade to this intensely intimate collection.Grace Harper, Macs Backs Books