Red Plaid Shirt

Diane Schoemperlen has been described variously as “one of the most vibrant and original voices in our literature,” “incredibly intelligent and observant,” “funny,” and “creatively innovative.”She was the 1998 winner of the Governor General’s Award for Fiction for Forms of Devotion, her collection of short stories and pictures. And her most recent novel, the bestselling Our Lady of the Lost and Found, is being simultaneously released in trade paperback as this newest collection appears on the shelves.

With Red Plaid Shirt, Schoemperlen shows that she is a writer at the top of her form an intriguing, wonderfully shape-shifting one, at that. Red Plaid Shirt presents 21 perfectly formed stories, a blend of favorites, out-of-print pieces and new work, all displaying Schoemperlen’s trademark wit, subtle irony and gift for turning everyday domesticities into dynamic, provocative prose.

“Losing Ground”is a coming-of-age story in which a teenage girl starts to see herself as separate from her family. In “This Town,” Schoemperlen creates a witty newcomers’ guidebook to an ordinary town complete with handy cross-references. In “A Simple Story,” a tale of a man and his mistress is gradually uncovered, as a seemingly simple car accident unravels an epic tangle of lives and loves. As always, these are compulsively readable stories, deliciously difficult to resist, proving once again that Schoemperlen’s voice is as fresh, funny, and electric as ever.