Merilyn Simonds

Episodes from a woman's life are reflected in this acclaimed collection of interrelated short stories from a sensational new talent. Richly layered . . . stories so solid they seem sculpted, yet so delicate they remain full of mystery.--Publishers Weekly.

The Lion in the Room Next Door

A woman of the Swedish aristocracy loses her young husband in the Russian revolution and finds her way to northern Ontario to work as a nurse for the Dionne Quintuplets before discovering a deep love of the birds that live on her handful of acres. She creates longitudinal behavior and population studies that are still used by Ornithologists today.

Louise de Kiriline Lawrence and the Songbirds of Pimisi Bay

Woman, Watching

A graceful and sharply observed book of inspiration that uses the garden as its central muse A New Leaf traces a year of growing seasons at The Leaf, Merilyn Simonds' acreage in eastern Ontario. A lifelong gardener, Simonds works the soil and the soul for wide-ranging revelations about everything from flowers that keep time, to the strange gift of compost, to great gardens of the world, to things lost and found underground. She is joined on her journey by a host of companions — including her Beloved, who tills by her side; the Rosarian, who tends to both bud and thorn in roses and life; and the Frisarian, who weeds unwelcome visitors to make room for new growth. Intelligent and intimate, irreverent and elegant, A New Leaf offers a cornucopia of enrichment and inspiration for the fertile mind.

Growing with My Garden

A New Leaf

New York Times Editor's Choice Alyson Thomson has left the city for an abandoned farm in the Madawaska hills of Ontario, with Walker, a potter. There, they live a life of artistic and emotional independence, until eventually the isolation brings to the fore tensions and conflicts within the relationship. After a tragedy enters Alyson’s life, she uncovers, in the ruins of a decrepit log cabin, the hidden writings of a young woman who lived on their land more than a hundred years before. As Alyson reads the harrowing tale of Margaret MacBayne, who left behind hardship in a Scottish seacoast town for the Canadian bush in 1859 with the hope of building a new life, she finds Margaret’s story comes to parallel her own in disturbing and unpredictable ways. A brilliant illumination of the lives of two women who occupy the same place a century apart, The Holding reveals the things we keep most guarded, whose truths often lie in unexpected places.

The Holding

A Novel

A new edition of the beloved and bestselling classic work of creative nonfiction It is 1919. Joseph Cleroux, a handsome young man who escaped the Great War and the flu epidemic, is incarcerated in Kingston Penitentiary, determined that jail will not break him. Phyllis Halliday is a 17-year-old schoolgirl who finds his letter in the quarry where he is doing hard time. As "Peggy" and "Dady-Long-Legs," they exchange a clandestine correspondence that frees them both from the confines of their lives, although the risk entailed increases as Joseph asks more and more of Phyllis and conditions inside Canada's most notorious prison deteriorate. Based on letters the author found in the attic of her home, The Convict Lover is a blend of historical detective work and imaginative recreation -- a haunting, unforgettable journey through the world of Canada's first and oldest penitentiary and portrait of the people who lived in its shadow, both inside and outside its walls. Played out against the backdrop of a war-scarred society, a vicious battle for penitentiary reform, and the first riot in Canada's prison history, The Convict Lover is a story of human resilience and desire. This edition includes a new introduction and epilogue.

A True Story

The Convict Lover

True story of a young girl and a convict in Kingston during the 1920's. Letters.

Wayne Grady

What begins as a road trip through America soon becomes a journey of discovery into themselves and into the heart of the next-door neighbour they thought they knew. For Wayne Grady, the thrill of landscape and history is tempered by memories of racism and his own family roots. Merilyn Simonds, her ear tuned for the offbeat, finds curious echoes of the ex-pat promised land she grew up with. Together they travel against the tide of American history, following in the literary tire tracks of John Steinbeck, William Least Heat Moon, and Francis Trollope. Grady and Simonds experience the splendors of the Mojave Desert, the Grand Canyon, the Mississippi River, and the bayou’s of Louisiana and the Outer Banks and contemplate the impact of geography on culture and of culture on landscape. They observe America from the outside, yet feel strangely at home. Part travelogue, part exploration, part mid-winter love story told with wit and acuity by one of Canada’s most engaging literary couples, Breakfast at the Exit Cafe is a journey into the reality behind the cultural myth that is America.

Travels Through America

Breakfast at the Exit Café

Told from the perspective of the provider of sanctuary rather than the refugee, Refuge offers a literary exploration of memory, asylum, and human connection.

Merilyn Simonds

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