Gabriella Goliger & Blaine Marchand, Authors

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Thursday, February 24th, 2011
8:00 PM to 10:00 PM

Author Reading with two acclaimed writers:
Gabriella Goliger, Girl Unwrapped, a novel
Blaine Marchand, The Craving of Knives & Aperture, poetry
Presented by Mermaid Tales Bookshop; Location: Darwin�s Caf�, Tofino Botanical Gardens

Girl Unwrapped is a powerful tale of the burdens and blessings of history, the divided self, and the quest to be whole in a coming-of-age story set in 1960s Montreal. Toni Goldblatt's awakening to taboo desire conflicts with the expectations of her Holocaust-scarred parents and with the conservative mores of her times. She flees to Israel in the wake of the 1967 war, but the Zionist dream doesn't save her; only on her return to Montreal, when she discovers kindred spirits in the underground lesbian bar scene, does Toni begin to accept herself and find her own path.
Achingly honest, Gabriella Goliger's Girl Unwrapped is a novel about forbidden love, isolation, and the search for personal truth despite the stranglehold of family history.

Praise for Girl Unwrapped, published by Arsenal Pulp Press
The tender closing of Toni's painful odyssey is filled with the blessings that come with no longer having to hide the truth. Goliger's symbolic transliteration of Lisa's Sabbath chant, �Chew's life,� appears to have worked its magic.
�The Globe and Mail
Read more about Gabriella at gabriellagoliger.com.

Praise for Aperture, published by Buschek Books and nominated for the 2009 Lampman-Scott Award.
�The poems in Aperture reduced me to tears. Nothing I have read elsewhere captures the haunting beauty of Afghanistan as does this small volume of poetry. Blaine Marchand has lived among and traveled with the people of Afghanistan, and has come to appreciate their tenacity in overcoming obstacles. From the subdued stillness of villages amid high mountain ranges to the vehicle-choked clamour of its cities, he empathizes with Afghanistan�s throbbing life. The poems literally infuse you with the tumult and serenity he so brilliantly describes.� The Honourable Flora MacDonald, PC, CC
The Craving of Knives, published by Buschek Books, is the work of a mature and worldly writer. It is the poetry of a man who asks difficult questions, meets his fears and moves beyond an obscurant life to one of transformation.
Blaine Marchand has won several prizes for his writing, including the Archibald Lampman Award for Poetry for his book, A Garden Enclosed. He has published four books of poetry, a children's novel and a work of non-fiction. He has returned to Canada after a two-year posting in Islamabad, Pakistan, has retired, and is now writing full-time. He is working on Nomads (short stories).
Read more about Blaine at www.poets.ca/linktext/direct/marchand.htm