{"id":6,"date":"2008-11-03T18:22:17","date_gmt":"2008-11-03T23:22:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/marthabaillie.ca\/?page_id=6"},"modified":"2024-09-04T09:43:37","modified_gmt":"2024-09-04T13:43:37","slug":"novels","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/marthabaillie.ca\/?page_id=6","title":{"rendered":"Books"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"\"<\/a>There Is No Blue<\/h3>\n

Available from Coach House<\/a> and Amazon<\/a><\/p>\n

Martha Baillie\u2019s richly layered response to her mother\u2019s passing, her father’s life, and her sister\u2019s suicide is an exploration of how the body, the rooms we inhabit, and our languages offer the psyche a home, if only for a time.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Three essays, three deaths. The first is the death of the author\u2019s mother, a protracted disappearance, leaving space for thoughtfulness and ritual: the washing of her body, the making of a death mask. The second considers Baillie’s father, his remoteness, his charm, a lacuna at the center of the family even before his death, earlier than her mother’s. And then, third, shockingly, the author\u2019s sister, a visual artist and writer living with a diagnosis of schizophrenia, who writes three reasons to die on her bedroom wall and then takes her life, just before the book the sisters co-authored is due to come out.<\/p>\n

In this close observation of a family, few absolutes hold, as experiences of reality diverge. A memoir of cascading grief and survival from the author of The Incident Report.<\/p>\n

_____<\/p>\n

“Martha Baillie\u2019s novels are thrillingly, joyously singular, that rare combination of sui generis and just plain generous. That There Is No Blue, her memoir, is all of those things too, is no surprise; still, she has gone somewhere extraordinary. This triptych of essays, which exquisitely unfolds the \u201cdisobedient tale\u201d of the lives and deaths of her mother, her father, and her sister, is a meditation on the mystery and wonder of grief and art making and home and memory itself. It made me think of kintsugi, the Japanese art of repair, in which the mending is not hidden but featured and beautifully illuminated. Baillie\u2019s variety of attention, carved out of language, is tenderness, is love.” \u2013 Maud Casey, author of City of Incurable Women<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

“This is a stunning memoir, intense and meticulous in its observations of family life. Baillie subtly interrogates and conveys the devastating mistranslations that take place in childhood, the antagonism and porousness of siblings, and the tragedy of schizophrenia as it unfolds. I couldn\u2019t put it down.” \u2013 Dr. Lisa Appignanesi, author of Mad, Bad and Sad and Everyday Madness<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

“”Exquisite.” \u2013 Souvankham Thammavongsa, author of How to Pronounce Knife<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

“I am grateful for this profound meditation on family and loss.\u201d \u2013 Charlie Kaufman, filmmaker<\/strong><\/p>\n

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\n<\/sister><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Sister Language<\/h3>\n

Available from Amazon<\/a><\/p>\n

Sister Language<\/strong> is a collaboration, composed mainly of letters and other writings, between two sisters, one of whom, Christina, is schizophrenic. In the careful building of a bridge between sisters, a prose nonpareil is achieved, and a linguistic “bridge” created between readers and the authors, one of whom’s deep isolation is in this way diminished.<\/p>\n

Sister Language – Nominated for Trillium Book Award<\/strong>!<\/a><\/p>\n

Read more about the Trillium Award in the Toronto Star<\/a><\/p>\n

“A playful duet, a radiant howl, a swirling portrait of schizophrenia and sisterhood–this beautiful, wildly-groomed book magnifies two brilliant minds in motion. It is a story of what happens when ‘everyday’ language mutinies and shatters, leaving a fragile chimera of coherence. But mostly it’s a tale of unshakable, vulnerable, writerly love that brought me to tears.”
\n– Kyo Maclear, author of Birds Art Life<\/p>\n

Listen to a musical interpretation of Sister Language<\/strong><\/a>, composed by\u00a0Noora Nakhaei<\/a> and performed by Edana Higham & Zac Pulak \u2013 SHHH!! Ensemble<\/a>, as part of a concert in October 2020 – find the Sister Language piece “Echoes of the Past” at abut 12:20.<\/p>\n

More reviews >><\/a><\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/a>If Clara<\/h3>\n

\u00a0Coach House<\/a>\u00a0(English)<\/em><\/p>\n

Decitre<\/a> (Fran\u00e7ais)<\/em><\/p>\n

A mysterious manuscript falls into a bed-ridden writer’s lap in this novel of broken bones, Syrian folktales, and plummets of all varieties.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In If Clara, nobody stands on firm ground. Daisy, an author confined to her home, her leg in a cast from hip to ankle, receives a parcel containing the manuscript of a novel about a Syrian refugee, and is asked to pose as its writer. Julia, a curator of installation art, has no idea that her sister, Clara, has written a novel. However, she does know that Clara suffers from a debilitating mental illness that renders her wildly unpredictable. And Maurice’s life is changed by a pair of binoculars welded to the wall of Julia’s gallery. These stories collide in a most unexpected way.<\/p>\n

An interview with Martha Baillie (2017. Open Book) >><\/a><\/p>\n

Reviews >><\/a><\/p>\n

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The Search For Heinrich Schl\u00f6gel<\/h3>\n

\"Canadian\u00a0Canada – Indigo<\/a> or Amazon<\/a><\/p>\n

\"USA\u00a0USA \u00a0– B&N\u00a0eBook<\/a> or Amazon<\/a><\/p>\n

Martha Baillie\u2019s hypnotic novel follows Heinrich Schl\u00f6gel from Germany to Canada, where he sets out on a two-week hike into the isolated interior of Baffin Island. His journey quickly becomes surreal; he experiences strange encounters and inexplicable visions as shards of Arctic history emerge from the shifting landscape. When he returns from his hike, he discovers that, though he has not aged, thirty years have passed. Narrated by an unnamed archivist who is attempting to piece together the truth of Heinrich\u2019s life, The Search for Heinrich Schl\u00f6gel dances between reality and dream, asking us to consider not only our role in imagining the future into existence but also the consequences of our past choices.<\/p>\n

Reviews are in!<\/a><\/p>\n

Q&A<\/strong> with Martha<\/a><\/p>\n

Blog From The Bookstore w\/ Martha<\/a><\/p>\n

Visit The Schl\u00f6gel Archive<\/a> – a novel redistributed<\/p>\n

Published by\u00a0Pedlar Press<\/a> in Canada — \u00a0Tin House<\/a> in the USA<\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/a>The Incident Report<\/h3>\n

The Incident Report takes the pulse of our fragmented urban existence with detachment and wit. Set in the heart of Toronto, at the Allan Gardens Public Library, home to the mad and the marginalized, the novel is both a mystery and an erotic love story, told in 144 brief lyric reports that ricochet off each other to form an utterly unusual and compelling novel.<\/p>\n

Buy eBook or paperback\u00a0at Amazon<\/a> or Indigo<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"Video readings …<\/a><\/p>\n

\"CBC<\/a>

     <\/span> <\/span><\/span><\/span>CBC radio interview<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div><\/span>