Postcard and Other Stories

A high school math teacher drifts from a moored boat to a downtown trance club, while negotiating her problematic relationship with an alcoholic older brother. A displaced Toronto book designer deliberates dreams, daydreams and delusions that result from a lone encounter with philosopher Mark Kingwell. A dissatisfied nomad traverses the globe, from Vancouver to Persepolis, chasing fleeting intimacies of her own as she tries to conjure confessions for the dead.

In these six stories Anik See meticulously deconstructs love, art, and identity, blurring the distinctions between momentary lust and long-term intimacy, and loss and fulfillment. Throughout these explorations of somewhat muddled lives, See demonstrates an uncanny ability to distill often unsettling truths in prose that is intelligent, subtle, and unerringly cool. Intricate yet precise, postcard and other stories offers the reader a lucid perspective on the blurry, bewildering business of being human.