Vendor
	Liepman Literary Agency Marc Koralnik
Original language
English

CONFIDENCE

Russell Smith

Everyone has a secret in this darkly brilliant and poisonously funny collection from a Canadian master of taut writing

In the stories of CONFIDENCE, there are ecstasy-taking PhD students, financial traders desperate for husbands, owners of failing sex stores, violent and unremovable tenants, aggressive raccoons, seedy massage parlors, experimental filmmakers who record every second of their day, and wives who blog insults directed at their husbands. There are cheating husbands. There are private clubs, crowded restaurants, psychiatric wards. There is one magic cinema and everyone has a secret of some kind.

RUSSELL SMITH was born in South Africa and raised in Halifax. His first novel, How Insensitive, was shortlisted for the Governor General's Award. Young Men, a short-story collection, was shortlisted for the Toronto Book Award, as was his novel Muriella Pent. He works regularly with the CBC and writes for the Globe and Mail. He lives in Toronto.

Available products
Book Published 2015-05-01 by Biblioasis

Comments

"Smith is typically referred to as a satirist, though I think his balance of contempt and compassion is too nuanced for such categorization. He plumbs the psyches of the seemingly superficial in frequently funny prose that exudes an understanding of their anxieties about ambition, class, stature and their own desirability. Smith's credentials in this milieu are impeccable."

"In the world of these stories, love is a game, secrets pile up, needs go unmet, compromises and negotiations are constantly being made . . . [Yet the final pieces] soften the book's unflinching tone and deliver, finally, emotional resonance by hinting at vulnerable humanity and the truest, simplest desires behind the exhaustive chase of pleasure."

"The most memorable stories work with the formula but have added depth. Mixing satiric comedy with pathos, the married dad in Raccoons' pretends to search the garage for the titular pest. In fact he is digging for sex tapesabout which a furious woman (an affair that flamed out) has been making threatening phone calls, while he strives to maintain the illusion of being nothing but a loving husband and father."