The Freedom in American Songs: Stories

Annabel’s combined print/e-book sales of 21,000 does not include her 24,000+ UK sales or 70,000 Canadian sales.

Annabel has been translated into 6 languages

Previous KW coverage in O, NYTRB, New Yorker, Rumpus &more

It was the only book in 2010 to be nominated for all three major Canadian fiction awards, plus the Orange Prize and the IMPAC Dublin the year after

Despite the worldwide success of her novel, the short story is where KW really excels: she’s funnier, she’s quirkier, she’s more attentive to both her language (which in Annabel was universally praised for its lyrical quality), and landscapes (called crystalline ). Here she also maintains her interests in the ambiguities of gender/sexual orientation and the impact of loneliness, which are two of the things that made Annabel-a novel about a hermaphrodite in Newfoundland-so compelling.

Stories vary in length & perspective, & they’re eccentric, but aren’t particularly difficult-a book for the general as well as the literary reader

In her words, here are the collection’s major themes & issues:

Growing up gay in smalltown North America.

Self-destructive love affairs with catastrophic people.

The pervasive loneliness that fills the modern world despite its proliferation of so-called social media.

Gut-ripping inappropriate laughter.

The holiness of ordinary life.

Family secrets