Danuta Gleed Prize (3rd). Relit Award Finalist. K.M Hunter Award Finalist.
In Way Up, grimy workers deal with love, fear, and death in the machine-mangled bush of the Canadian Shield and in the strangely urbane chaos of a Belgian forest. A restrained marriage silently unravels along the cliffs of Normandy, isolated grief is tragically contained on a tiny Nova Scotia Island, and a man on a car trip flirts with his ex’s morbid passion. In thirteen surprising stories, Way Up illuminates the constant adjustments necessary to stay alive, aware, and fully human.
Reviews
“…it’s a huge pleasure watching her defy the usual literary gravity.”
– (Globe and Mail – Jim Bartley)
“Way Up refers to the signature phrase uttered by a Canadian icon: The CBC’s beloved Friendly Giant, the late Bob Homme. In the title story, the central characters recall their childhoods, the comfort they felt tuning into Homme’s show, in which a big kind man — powerful as God — watched over a miniature world. This is one of many examples of how Kuitenbrouwer uses a bold, unapologetic Canadian consciousness to explore existential concerns.”
– (Ottawa Citizen – Donna Bailey Nurse)
“There’s a slow, creeping surprise, entirely pleasant, in reading Kathryn Kuitenbrouwer’s first book of stories, a kind of surprise that has a lot in common with getting into a conversation with a stay-at-home mom at the dog park and realizing she can explain all that particle physics behind Copenhagen.”
– (Toronto Star – Bert Archer)