Laurie Graham Knihy

What if Liberace had been born in Saltley, Birmingham, England instead of Milwaukee, Wisc.? That's the premise of Laurie Graham's entertaining novel about Selwyn Boff, who parleys spangly jackets, candelabra, piety and public devotion to his mum into international stardom. Graham tells the story from the point of view of Selwyn's older brother Cledwyn, an aspiring musician and failed song-writer who plays second fiddle to Sel all his life. He doesn't know much about Sel's sex life, and casts a rosy light on even the most dysfunctional aspects of the Boff clan, but his memoir is also a running commentary on the changes in British and American mass culture after WWII

Trillium Book Award for Poetry, Finalist A powerful book-length poem on environmental destruction and the violences of colonial nation-states from the acclaimed author of Settler Education. Here is a lament for places in flux, where industrial, commercial, or suburban development encroaches or invades. From Highway 401 to Refinery Row east of Edmonton, from Lake Ontario to the Fraser River, this long poem takes aim at the structures that support ecological injustice and attempts new forms of expression grounded in respect for flora, fauna, water, land, and air. It also wrestles with the impossibility of speaking ethically about “the environment” as a settler living within and benefiting from the will to destroy that so often doubles as nationalism. Following physical routes and terrains, Fast Commute exists both within and outside the dissociative registers of colonialism and capitalism. This deeply engaging book offers a way to see, learn about, and live in relationship with other-than-human life, and to begin dealing with loss on a grand scale.

Laurie Graham's brilliant satire explores the comic possibilities of culture clash and the unexpected friendship of two women whose lives are poles apart.

A poignant follow-up to The Future Homemakers of America - warm-hearted and sparklingly witty women's fiction for fans of The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, Fannie Flagg and Anne Tyler

When Lady Enid - a woman in need of a project and a husband - throws in her lot with dashing Bernard Finch, she thinks she's found her perfect life's companion. Handsome and clever, Bernard has come a long way from his small-town American roots. Now he is a man transformed, more English than the English, a celebrated lecturer on Aegean cruises. Which is where his past comes back to bite him, in the shape of his old college chum, Frankie Gleeson. Frankie has made his fortune in corn snacks and to celebrate his success he brings his wife, Nola, to cruise the Greek islands. Frankie is a simple man but he has the gift of total recall, of every detail of Bernard's early years. Yet while Bernard shuns his cruise companions, Enid finds herself strangely drawn to them. It's amazing how much can happen between Istanbul and Venice.

Grandparents Bobs and Ba live in happy prosperity. But whilst on holiday to celebrate Bobs' fiftieth birthday, Ba begins to suspect that all is not well. Is he having an affair? The truth is worse than she could ever imagine - Bobs has discovered cross-dressing!

Filled with warmth, wit and wisdom, The Future Homemakers of America takes us to the heart of female friendship. A novel fans of DIVINE SECRETS OF THE YA-YA SISTERHOOD will not be able to resist.

The eagerly awaited new novel from the bestselling author of THE FUTURE HOMEMAKERS OF AMERICA. What hope is there for Poppy Minkel? With her kinky hair, out-sticking ears, too yellow neck and appetite for fun, her mother Dora despairs of ever finding her a husband, despite the Minkel's Mustard fortune that seasons Poppy's dubious attractions. Correctness, duty and Dora Minkel Ear Correcting Bandages are the weapons in the Great Husband Hunt -- and a torture to a girl who has her own hazy ideas about beauty, love and marriage. When world events intervene, Poppy's tendency to the unusual is quietly allowed to flourish. Her mother, meanwhile, finds comfort in a bottle of Tilden's Extract and the commanding ways of Aunt Fish. World War I opens new horizons for Poppy. With never a moment of self-doubt, she invents her own extraordinary life in step with the unfolding century. Narrated by a heroine as original and enchanting as Sally Bowles, THE UNFORTUNATES is an hilarious, sweeping celebration of passion's triumph over prudence.