Sarah Dearing
ISBN 978-1-894469-78-4
$19.95 CDN / US
230 pp
The Art of Sufficient Conclusions is a genre-bending chronicle of one woman’s obsession to comprehend the slippery nature of truth. It’s a compelling literary mash-up of fiction, memoir, and archival material, tracing the complex processes of personal identity, belief and the creation of art itself.
The story, both real and fictional, revolves around the revelation that in the 1920’s Dearing’s 10 year-old father, a silent film actor in England, had been sold to a sculptor to be his model. Disgraced former schoolteacher Abigail Strafe stands in for the author as she delves into the mysterious and unsettling bit of family lore. Blending her signature wry wit with darker sentiments appropriate to the material and age, Dearing’s narrative moves between Toronto and London, England; post-9/11 and post-World War I. Taking the cue from something found in one of the sculptor’s letters, she challenges her readers to consider whether it’s conceivable, in the aftermath of horror, for beauty and innocence, hope and truth, to prevail over cynicism and anger.
“Sarah Dearing’s Courage My Love … so strongly depicts an angle on a place and a time, so profoundly evokes a stench and a feeling, that it creates a true literary landscape. It’s that good. Seriously. It’s a place you could paint from memory, describe in detail to police, as though you had lived there … a great read.” —The Globe and Mail
“Dearing’s writing is accomplished and evocative.” —Quill & Quire
“(Dearing) has a powerful empathy and an uncanny talent for establishing voice and character within the quick beat of a line. These are rare gifts, and signs of a future without bounds.” —The National Post
“Her characters … are rich and real.” —NOW
