Dear Evelyn

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WINNER OF THE 2018 ROGERS WRITERS TRUST FICTION PRIZEWINNER OF THE 2019 CITY OF VICTORIA BUTLER BOOK PRIZEA 2018KIRKUSBEST BOOK OF THE YEARAGLOBE AND MAILBEST BOOK OF 2018ATORONTO STARTOP TEN BOOK OF THE YEARAWINNIPEG FREE PRESSFAVOURITE BOOK OF THE YEARAQUILL & QUIREBEST BOOK OF 2018Born between the wars on a working-class London street, Harry Miles wins a scholarship and a chance to escape his station, but discovers instead that poetry is what offers him real direction. While searching for more of it he meets Evelyn Hill on the steps of Battersea Library. The two fall in love as the world prepares once again for war, but their capacity to care for each other over the ensuing decades becomes increasingly tested.Twisting and startling, harrowing and deeply tender,Dear Evelynexplores how two very different people come together to shape and reshape each other over a lifetime. It is a compelling and unconventional love story that will leave its mark on any reader who has ever loved.Praise forDear EvelynKathy PagesDear Evelynis a novel in the shape of a life[true] to most human experiences of lovePage has laid bare the lives of her characters, making no claim to their significance to anyone but each other, and in doing so has demonstrated that the ordinary is infinitely precious. Times Literary SupplementQuietly hums with emotional charge. The war years, with Harry fighting in North Africa and Evelyn struggling with a young child at home, are especially vivid, but this watchful, empathetic chronicle retains sensitivity through the less obviously eventful decades of home-building and child-rearing.Pages watchful and very British tale remains devoted to both and forgiving to the end. A searching, and touching, depiction of the places where married lives merge and the places where they never do. Kirkus(starred review)Kathy PagesDear Evelyntells the tender and unsettling story of working-class Londoner Harry Miles and the ambitious Evelyn Hill who fall in love as the world around them goes to war. What initially begins as a familiar wartime love story morphs into a startling tale of times impact on love and family, as well as ones complex search for personal meaning and truth. By integrating themes that are universally understood by readers and skillfully crafting endearing characters that surprise and delight, Page has created a poignant literary work of art. The result is a timeless page-turning masterpiece. Rogers Writers Trust Fiction Prize jury citationPersonal and intimate in focus, preoccupied with the minutiae of love and the domestic. What this painstaking and painful account of a marriage from passionate beginning to resentful, grubby end relies on, as much as its period detail, is its precise ruminations on the nature of affection and resentment, and on how love can persist in the face of crueltyThis becomes a novel of sadness about love and its waste, and about the humiliation of aging. It made me cry my eyes out. Globe and MailNo work of fiction has ever moved me to tears. These pages so emotionally swept me away that, at one particularly heartbreaking point, the book felt so alive that it might wound me, and I launched the thing across the room. Dear Evelyn trembles with what Walter Benjamin might call an aura of authenticity, deeply felt and rooted in the authors obvious love for literature and her family. The result is a profoundly moving novel that captures the deep melancholy and fundamental loneliness of the human condition with startling emotional acuity. Literary Review of CanadaAlove story, a coming-of-age story, and a brilliantly evocative sketch of Britain in the 20th century[a] measured, intelligent novel. The GuardianPages finely wrought story by turns tender, acid, and poignant reminds us that marriage is a condition as infinitely variable as the individuals who enter into itgains dimension and complexity as additional details accumulate through Pages deft use of flashbacks and prolepsis; her precise and graceful prose gives the emerging picture nuance and shadingPages touching novel makes the ordinary extraordinary. Quill & Quire(starred review)An ambitious, and highly literary, historical fiction outingThe writing is remarkable, masterfully weaving together the personal and the political. The backdrop of global conflict infuses the story with urgency, drama, and the exotic appeal of foreign travel, while the intimate manoeuverings of the characters oscillate between tenderness and profound despair. Toronto StarA smartly written portrait of a marriage that is true to life, has depth and detail, and is sometimes sweet and sometimes painfulthe characters linger long afterwards and are likely to leave readers with either a tear in their eye or a lump in the throat. Winnipeg Free PressThe detail, the nuance, and the vitality of the scenes, while disconcerting, is also supremely detailed but never overwhelming with pages of minutiaHarry and Evelyn come together for an instant, repel one another over this or that, strive to find their better selves and their compassion and their once rich love; and then, with a harsh word or passing mood, theyre back to marital warfare. Its a heartbreaking depiction, if only because its so enduring: these two are bound by family, by obligation, by history, and even by a steady if off-kilter and declining love. Vancouver SunPage charts the emotional shifts that take place over the course of their marriage, from first flush of love to old age, with subtlety and sensitivity. BooklistThough a familiar tale, its sharply drawn and told with an alertness to cliche [T]he concluding scenes, while sadly inevitable, are quietly devastating. Daily Mail OnlineI know of no contemporary writer who deals so convincingly with love. Page consistently dramatizes the ways in which the feelings of intimate couples are puzzling mixtures of hope, lust, genuine caring, resentment, politics, and much elseambitious and profoundly resonant. Ormsby ReviewDear Evelynhas a wonderful, effortless sweepPage is able to contain a century; two wars; two fully realized, flawed and complicated people; a rich and tumultuous marriage; so much love; and the pride, rage and resentment that keeps so much from ever being properly expressed. Kerry Clare,Pickle Me This[Page] has flown largely under the radar of publishing journalism while also writing damned good booksPage is a magician at evoking a sense of past-ness, and her characterisation is extraordinarily skillful and tender: both Evelyn and her husband Harry can be extremely difficult, but the reader understands and feels for them both. Exceptional work. Elle ThinksA beautifully written story about a long marriage with a heart-tugging ending. Literary HoardersA richly textured story that feels authentic to each period, without ever getting bogged down in too many details or historical facts Relayed with compassion, and incisive writing. Gulf Islands DriftwoodA novel that will fill your heart, and break it, too. TheParry SoundPraise for Kathy PagePageruns circles around authors who work twice as hard for half the reward One of the most talented short-story writers working today delivered yet another knockout collection that is both darkly funny and terribly sad. Globe and MailA moving novel about knowledge, self-awareness and the power of words, set in the purgatory of prison. This young manslife demands our attention and refuses to let go. Kirkus(starred review)Like children at a sleepover, tucked beneath shared covers, the stories whisper to one another, providing a thematic richness to the book that far outstrips its page count.The WalrusTight, strange, nifty stories. Margaret AtwoodHer fiction is sensuous and verdant, grafting lyrical prose onto stories and situations that appear almost as legends.National PostPages prose is vivid and alive, with nary a scrap of throwaway writing to be found. Publishers WeeklyAlphabetis not just highly readable, but one of the strongest, most eloquent, most tightly constructed novels of the yearIt is a measure of the quiet artistry ofAlphabetthat, out of material that would have been at home in the blackest of black comedies, Kathy Page has celebrated, with rare deftness, the resilience of the human heart.Sunday TelegraphA complex book, and splendidly written,Alphabetis an intensely compelling reading experience that speaks to the power of words and the significance of language in all its dangerous subtleties.The Edmonton JournalOne of our most daring writers If you dont know Pages work yet, shes a find. Caroline AddersonKathy Page is a massive talent. Barbara GowdyOne of the most complex characters Ive ever met in a novel.Victoria Times ColonistEmotionally resonant, poignant examinations of life and love and most piercingly death Page is a highly skilled miniaturist, capable of pulling off powerful effects by way of simple (though never simplistic) prose and a keen eye for human fallibility and ambiguity. Quill & QuireA vivid portrayalmesmerizing. [Page] writes with compassion, tenderness and a deep intelligence. Prairie Fire