Description
May 1, 2025. PRE-ORDER NOW.
Every year, 2.6 million babies are stillborn around the world; in Canada, one in every 125 pregnancies ends in a stillbirth.
It is September 1991 and Lydia has just given birth to a stillborn child in Montreal. As she and her husband, Dr John Gabriel, grapple with the after effects, their lives and relationship come under inevitable scrutiny. Lydia, the daughter of poor Greek immigrants, fears she has failed her husband as well as his more prosperous Greek family. Their marriage had been shaky from the start and the stillbirth seriously threatens its very foundations, including John’s commitment to fidelity.
Tunes for Dancing Bears plunges deeply into the complexities of grief and the limits of our self regard. A touching story of family, loss, immigration, hope, and the real meaning of for better or worse.
Irena Karafilly is an award-winning author of several acclaimed books and of numerous stories, poems, and articles. She has published in literary and mainstream magazines, as well as in The New York Times and the International Herald Tribune. Her short stories have won Canada’s National Magazine Award and the CBC Literary Award. Her latest novel, Arrested Song, was recently published in the UK by Legend Press and was Finalist for the QWF 2024 Paragraphe-Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction. She lives in Montreal.
Praise and Reviews
“Irena Karafilly has written a beautiful and moving addition to the literature of loss and grief.” William Kotzwinkle, author of Swimmer in the Secret Sea
Praise for Arrested Song
“I enjoyed this book immensely. Karafilly succeeds brilliantly where I had decided not to even try. A very accomplished novel.” Louis de Bernieres
“A gripping, powerfully evocative chronicle of Greek island life. . .. Nothing is black and white here, least of all her feisty, iconoclastic heroine . . . hard to put this book down.” Sofka Zinovieff
“Arrested Song is a wonderful novel, fully realized and absorbing.” Anna Porter
“An epic, page-turning story, of longing and bravery. Arrested Song is a must read.” Nadia Marks
“Beautifully written and riveting.” Carol P. Christ
“Arrested Song is a highly accomplished, thoroughly researched, and compelling read.” Dean Kalimniou
“One of the best novels I?ve read about modern Greece . . .. A truly original work.” Diana Farr Louis
“A beautifully written, superbly detailed and addictive historical novel mostly set on the island of Lesvos. I savoured every word.” Peter Barber.
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