About the Author
Alissa York’s internationally acclaimed novels include Mercy, Effigy (shortlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize), Fauna and, most recently, The Naturalist (winner of the Canadian Author’s Association Fiction Award). Stories from her short fiction collection, Any Given Power, have won the Journey Prize and the Bronwen Wallace Award; her essays and articles have appeared in The Guardian, The Globe and Mail, Brick magazine and elsewhere. York has lived all over Canada and now makes her home in Toronto with her husband, artist Clive Holden. She teaches Creative Writing at the Humber School for Writers.
Alissa York’s internationally acclaimed novels include Mercy, Effigy (shortlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize), Fauna and, most recently, The Naturalist (winner of the Canadian Author’s Association Fiction Award). Stories from her short fiction collection, Any Given Power, have won the Journey Prize and the Bronwen Wallace Award; her essays and articles have appeared in The Guardian, The Globe and Mail, Brick magazine and elsewhere. York has lived all over Canada and now makes her home in Toronto with her husband, artist Clive Holden. She teaches Creative Writing at the Humber School for Writers.
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About The Naturalist
“I fell so hard in love with this book because it convinced me of something I need to know and forever remember, which is that the human heart will always, inevitably, be revealed and that the human heart, when working well, is a WILD heart—and that giving in to one’s wild heart is not incompatible with human decency. The Naturalist will join those few other books on my shelf that remind me how to live.” —Miriam Toews, author of Women Talking
“Alissa York taps the wisdom and intelligence that belongs to all nature. Her writing on animals is simply unparalleled: her love and understanding as clear as her prose, which is elegant, polished, selfless, and wild. This book is the best of adventures, a genuine journey upriver into another world—embark!” —Marina Endicott, author of The Difference
About Fauna
“Fauna is the sort of rare novel that can change the way you see your world. Its cast of misfits and dreamers is united by their visceral connection to the forgotten animals surviving in the green patches of our big cities. This book is beautiful, unusual and memorable. And Alissa York is a daring and original talent.” —Jim Lynch, author of Border Songs
“Layered with astonishing detail, with every location vividly evoked and every action a visceral experience.” --The Globe and Mail
About Effigy
“York’s writing is graphic and impressionistic, sharp-edged and sensual. Though both style and landscape at times bring to mind Annie Dillard and Cormac McCarthy, York’s voice is very much her own.” —Quill & Quire
“York’s mesmerizing tale is rich in historical detail and driven by a cast of deftly drawn and perfectly memorable characters ... A wonderful book.” —Lori Lansens, author of This Little Light
About Mercy
“A debut that’s pure magic... [Mercy] is stunning in its emotive power and emotional resonance. York’s prose is taut and finely honed; her themes and the characters and settings that propel them are far-reaching and profound. It’s sensual, full of yearning and longing for the heat of love.” --The Hamilton Spectator
“Alissa York is perched on the edge of literary big time with the launch of her debut novel. An intelligent and largely riveting story... spectacular.” —The Winnipeg Free Press
About Any Given Power
“Some events in life — loves, losses, injuries, dark discoveries — enter us by force and linger on as symbols that soothe or plague us in ways we barely understand. York has considered these mysteries and turned them into prose that quietly sings. The best of these stories support the note-by-note song with brilliant structure, hitting body and spirit together.” --The Globe and Mail
“The touchstone of truth in a fictional world is a surprise. When the least expected things seem inevitable and contrived, the reader has shared the most generous of all seductions. Alissa York cares fiercely for the integrity of her characters and never intrudes herself upon them, or us. These are truly original stories, charged with the luminous detail which makes us see life afresh.” --Séan Virgo, author of A Traveller Came By
“I fell so hard in love with this book because it convinced me of something I need to know and forever remember, which is that the human heart will always, inevitably, be revealed and that the human heart, when working well, is a WILD heart—and that giving in to one’s wild heart is not incompatible with human decency. The Naturalist will join those few other books on my shelf that remind me how to live.” —Miriam Toews, author of Women Talking
“Alissa York taps the wisdom and intelligence that belongs to all nature. Her writing on animals is simply unparalleled: her love and understanding as clear as her prose, which is elegant, polished, selfless, and wild. This book is the best of adventures, a genuine journey upriver into another world—embark!” —Marina Endicott, author of The Difference
About Fauna
“Fauna is the sort of rare novel that can change the way you see your world. Its cast of misfits and dreamers is united by their visceral connection to the forgotten animals surviving in the green patches of our big cities. This book is beautiful, unusual and memorable. And Alissa York is a daring and original talent.” —Jim Lynch, author of Border Songs
“Layered with astonishing detail, with every location vividly evoked and every action a visceral experience.” --The Globe and Mail
About Effigy
“York’s writing is graphic and impressionistic, sharp-edged and sensual. Though both style and landscape at times bring to mind Annie Dillard and Cormac McCarthy, York’s voice is very much her own.” —Quill & Quire
“York’s mesmerizing tale is rich in historical detail and driven by a cast of deftly drawn and perfectly memorable characters ... A wonderful book.” —Lori Lansens, author of This Little Light
About Mercy
“A debut that’s pure magic... [Mercy] is stunning in its emotive power and emotional resonance. York’s prose is taut and finely honed; her themes and the characters and settings that propel them are far-reaching and profound. It’s sensual, full of yearning and longing for the heat of love.” --The Hamilton Spectator
“Alissa York is perched on the edge of literary big time with the launch of her debut novel. An intelligent and largely riveting story... spectacular.” —The Winnipeg Free Press
About Any Given Power
“Some events in life — loves, losses, injuries, dark discoveries — enter us by force and linger on as symbols that soothe or plague us in ways we barely understand. York has considered these mysteries and turned them into prose that quietly sings. The best of these stories support the note-by-note song with brilliant structure, hitting body and spirit together.” --The Globe and Mail
“The touchstone of truth in a fictional world is a surprise. When the least expected things seem inevitable and contrived, the reader has shared the most generous of all seductions. Alissa York cares fiercely for the integrity of her characters and never intrudes herself upon them, or us. These are truly original stories, charged with the luminous detail which makes us see life afresh.” --Séan Virgo, author of A Traveller Came By