Age of Reason
Stories
by Dorothy Speak

---

Speaking in the voices of a broad cast of characters, from a retiree who has left her husband five times, to a carpenter in his thirties, to a seven-year-old child making his First Communion, Speak moves smoothly between male and female protagonists. These fourteen stories pulse with the pain and glory of desire, loss and rebirth. They tremble and sing with searing dialogue and outrageous humour. A rich and astonishing trove for the brave reader.

---

“An impressive and luminous assemblage of artful and quietly devastating tales.” —Kirkus Reviews “Not for the faint of heart or for readers in search of fairy-tale endings…Speak’s voice is lean and eloquent, hard-edged as the facets of a diamond and just as brilliant.” —Hour “Speak probes into uncomfortable places and lays bare ambivalences in relationships that, in polite company, are not normally dissected and scrutinized with anything like this author’s degree of candor.” —Globe and Mail “Speak very quickly draws the reader in, not simply because of her narrative skill, her unfailing instinct for the right word and the right image, but because she has a marvellous ability to create characters the reader actually cares about. This is not such a common ability as one might think.” —Toronto Star “The smallness in people, the meanness, the coldness, the banality of their sins makes the plots containing these stories burst at their steely seams.” —L.A. Times “The power of Speak’s portrayal of characters rests in the snatches of vivid detail, the ear for the precise word, the narrator’s deft irony and compassionate sensibility.” —Canadian Literature. “Speak’s characters are wilful and original; her prose is spare, sharp and intense.” —Redbook “Speak is a gifted analyst of the stark realities of life. She explores the intricate terrain of women’s lives with eloquent and witty prose.” —Publisher’s Weekly

---

Dorothy Speak comes from the small southern Ontario town of Woodstock. She was one of seven children. She cites her parents, who grew up on farms, her father in Saskatchewan and her mother in Huron County, Ontario, as the greatest influences on her work. Ottawa has been her home for most of her adult life.

---

Contributors

Author

Dorothy Speak