ALL THINGS CONSOLED

A poignant, complex, and hugely resonant memoir about the shift between being her parents' daughter to their guardian and caregiver.

As the daughter takes charge, and the writer takes notes, her mother and father are like two legendary icebergs floating south. They melt into the ocean of partial, painful, inconsistent, and funny stories that a family makes over time. Hay's eloquent memoir distills these stories into basic truths about parents and children and their efforts of understanding.

With her uncommon sharpness and wit, Elizabeth Hay offers her insights into the peculiarities of her family's dynamics – her parents' marriage, sibling rivalries, miscommunications that spur decades of resentment all matched by true and genuine love and devotion. Her parents are each startling characters in their own rights – her mother is a true skinflint who would rather serve up wormy soup (twice) than throw away an ancient packet of “perfectly good” mix; her father is a proud and well-mannered man with a temper that can be explosive.

I'm attaching a Q&A Liz completed about her motivation in writing the book. I'm also attaching Liz's backlist information (all fiction titles) below my signature for your information.

Elizabeth Hay is the author of the #1 nationally bestselling novel Alone in the Classroom, the Scotiabank Giller prize-winning novel Late Nights On Air, as well as four other highly acclaimed works of fiction, His Whole Life, A Student of Weather, Garbo Laughs, and Small Change. Formerly a radio broadcaster, she spent a number of years in Mexico and New York City before returning to Canada.

“Hay is a thoughtful, delicate writer.”
– The Spectator on His Whole Life

“Hay is so skilled and original a writer she need never rely on anyone's voice but her own.”
– The New York Times on Late Nights on Air