Evelyn Lau

Even as a six-year-old child, Evelyn Lau already knew what she would be in life--a writer. She would spend countless hours in her room writing short stories and poems trying to avoid the suffocating reality surrounding her. At the age of fourteen, forbidden by her strict parents to "waste" any more of her time writing, Evelyn did the only thing she felt she could do--she ran away. For two years, Lau lived on the streets of Vancouver. For a while she embraced her new life, seduced by the sense of freedom and independence from the pressures of school and family. But like so many others before her, Lau soon fell into a dangerous spiral of drug addiction and prostitution. During her two harrowing years on the street, Lau's writing ambition never left her; almost obsessively, she kept a written record of her days on the street; this record is Runaway: Diary of a Street Kid. A bestselling memoir, Runaway is a story of survival: physical, emotional and psychological. It is at times tragic, sometimes infuriating, but always honest and inspired; Runaway makes no apologies and offers no solutions. It is a vivid and frightening portrait of a young girl's life on the street.

Diary of a Street Kid

Runaway

Fiona, an accomplished young artist, falls in love with Raymond. An older married man. Their haunted relationship evolves in a floating melange of restaurants and hotel rooms against the looming backdrop of their separate, anonymous cities. Although erotically charged, the affair is never consummated - yet the love Fiona feels intensifies into an obsession that continues to possess her long after Raymond leaves her. Along the way, at receptions and restaurant tables, at dinner parties and on trips, Fiona meets other men and women in relationships that are coming together or falling apart-friendships, marriages, love affairs - each offering their own version of love's nature. And, throughout, Raymond's wife Helen holds a central place. For Fiona, Helen herself is "the other woman" - mysterious, enviable and untouchable.

Other Women

Even as a six-year-old child, Evelyn Lau already knew what she would be in life -- a writer. She would spend countless hours in her room writing short stories and poems trying to avoid the suffocating reality surrounding her. At the age of fourteen, forbidden by her strict parents to “waste” any more of her time writing, Evelyn did the only thing she felt she could do -- she ran away. For two years, Lau lived on the streets of Vancouver. For a while she embraced her new life, seduced by the sense of freedom and independence from the pressures of school and family. But like so many others before her, Lau soon fell into a dangerous spiral of drug addiction and prostitution. During her two harrowing years on the street, Lau’s writing ambition never left her; almost obsessively, she kept a written record of her days on the street; this record is Runaway: Diary of a Street Kid. A bestselling memoir, Runaway is a story of survival: physical, emotional and psychological. It is at times tragic, sometimes infuriating, but always honest and inspired; Runaway makes no apologies and offers no solutions. It is a vivid and frightening portrait of a young girl’s life on the street.

A collection of stories by the author of the critically acclaimed Runaway: Diary of a Street Kid draws on her shocking, seductive memories of the dark underside of life to probe the lives of women on the edge of society, sexuality, and sanity.

Fresh Girls & Other Stories

In this latest collection of short fiction, Evelyn Lau's elegant prose explores the complexity of human relationships. Though they long to be chosen, the women in Lau's stories are drawn to men they can't have, men whose allure fades the more available they become. The wives and lovers of those men confront each other with a discordant mix of admiration and jealousy. In the novella, "Choose Me," Becky's attraction to Warner is equalled in intensity by her fascination with Annabelle, his aging but still glamorous wife. Zoe, the young poet of "Family," retreats from Douglas when she realizes that their involvement will never rival the "grand passion" he once shared with his wife. In "Suburbia," Belinda is increasingly disgusted by every aspect of her lover, as more and more she comes to see him through his wife's disappointed gaze. With a precise eye and a deft touch, Lau explores the ambiguous motives that propel her characters into emotional and sexual entanglements. Lau's use of language is controlled, and her images sensuously described.

Evelyn Lau

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