Russian Dolls
Subtitle: Stories from the Breathing Castle
Publisher: Coteau Books
Published: 2016
Language: eng
Number of pages: 320
ISBN-13: 9781550506952
Subjects: Fiction, short stories (single author)
Description: From the distinguished W.P. Kinsella comes his final work - a series of linked stories wrapped in a novel. Russian Dolls weaves in and out of the real and imaginary worlds of Wylie, a struggling author and self-proclaimed "unreliable narrator," as he finds and then loses his muse, Christie, in their shared home - aptly named the "Breathing Castle" - in East Vancouver. Woven into the story of their relationship are Wylie's short stories - at once bold, humorous, whimsical and reflective. The mood of the stories ranges from good to bad to worse, depending on his relationship with his muse at the time. Meanwhile, the stories Christie chooses to tell Wylie about her past are consistently captivating, but are also dark and dangerously inconsistent. Are her stories true? Or is the enticing but erratic Christie simply the better storyteller of the two?