Set in the imagined city of Fontainebleau, situated on the bank of the Detroit River, this is a story of misfortune, murder, and menace. Madeline Sonik’s book is a gripping collection of 17 connected short stories, all loosely inspired by the author’s childhood in Windsor, Ontario. Linked by the distinct locale and characters who disappear only to reappear (both dead and alive), the stories in Fontainebleau intersect, employing common elements. Themes including marginalization, prejudice, exceptionality, and memory appear frequently throughout the collection. In this book, readers get to know a number of characters from different perspectives, all linked to each other by the nightmarish landscape. Dark, magical, and mind-bending, this book would be an eclectic addition to an English classroom.

Caution: Sexual assault, alcohol and drug use, violence, and gore.

204 pp., 5.75 × 8.75"

Source: Association of Book Publishers of BC - BC Books for Schools (2021-2022)

Madeline Sonik's first collection of short fiction, Drying the Bones, was released by Nightwood Editions in 2000. She is the co-editor of the recently released anthology Entering the Landscape (Oberon) and in 1998 identified a new direction in Canadian writing with the anthology Fresh Blood: New Canadian Gothic Fiction (Turnstone Press). Her fiction and poetry have appeared in major literary magazines, including Event, Grain, Pottersfield Portfolio, The New Quarterly and Descant. She holds an MA in Journalism and is currently an MFA candidate at The University of British Columbia. She is also a black cord priestess of 13th House Mystery School and a practicing witch.

Madeline Sonik's profile page