Delible

by Anne Stone

Growing up on Toronto's desolate margins in the eighties, sixteen-year-old Mel Sprague has a lot on her The A-bomb. Acid rain. Where her dad's been hiding out for the last fifteen years .... Mel's younger sister, Lora, knows that despite her sister's 'talent for misery,' Mel's preoccupations aren't unusual. After all, Mel might stay out all night now and again, but in the Sprague family, teenagers are troubled by definition. When she vanishes, however, what were once the diversions of a teenage girl are taken up as evidence, leading investigators to ask if Mel Sprague chose to run away, this time for good. Lora, for her part, just knows that someone has taken her sister and, disquietingly, fears that it wasn't a stranger. Being a fifteen-year-old girl isn't easy ? and that's without experiencing an event that transforms everyone in your life into a suspect or a potential victim. Before her sister vanished, Lora's world was relatively simple, but Mel's disappearance creates a new and indelible division; everything changes, and there is nothing that is untouched by her loss. Delible is Lora's story. Through her unblinking eyes, we witness one family's experience of sustained uncertainty and come to see how our identities also exist in those traces we leave behind. Praise for Delible "Delible at its core is a seductive meditation on the ways young women mythologize, cling to, enrapture, and lose one another. This book is equal parts beauty and perversity, darkness and light. An affecting portrait of girls in the eighties drawn with great acuity." ? Heather O'Neill, author of Lullabies for Little Criminals "Delible is a dark and brilliant work in which understanding is inseparable from grief." ? Camille Roy, author of Craquer, Cheap Speech, and Swarm

312 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

Anne Stone teaches Creative Writing and Literature at Capilano University. Her latest novel, Girl Minus X (Fall 2020), tells the story of a girl with an eidetic memory and a traumatic past, navigating a world in which a slow creeping virus erodes memory. Publishers Weekly called the novel “a prismatic look at disaster striking people already in crisis. Stone’s brilliant, breathless novel will put readers in mind of Emily St. John Mandel and Margaret Atwood.” She’s also the author of the novels, Delible (2007), Hush (1999), and jacks (1998). Just now, she’s working on a book of speculative / slipstream / Weird short stories.

Reviews

[Trasie Sands · Rating 5 out of 5]

It may be my familiarity with the surroundings in the book and some of the real-life events referenced, but I had a difficult time putting this one down. So carefully constructed were the characters AND the differences between the characters, it was compelling. I found it interesting that just when you think perhaps you could use a break from the main character (Lora), the author provides, and secondary character voices were just as clear and compelling, but clearly not belonging to Lora. I appreciated the contrast. Loved everything about this.

[Aubrey · Rating 2 out of 5]

maybe it was the fact that I read this book online in a slightly frustrating website and that I read it while reading another "real" book, but the story just didn't interest me. It was confusing at some parts and the ending didn't really give any answers. It feels unfinished and completely pointless.

[Jesse · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just short of excellence. It's about a girl whose sister goes missing and how her life goes on during that tragedy. I really like that it doesn't try to tie everything up into a neat package at the end. It remains true to life. Not everything can be solved.

[Leigh Matthews · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think Anne Stone did a wonderful job of evoking the confusion and sadness surrounding the loss of a sibling/daughter/granddaughter. Her prose is so precise and emotive. I plan on getting my mitts on her other works forthwith!

[BookShorts MovingStories.TV · Rating 3 out of 5]

See the author biography of Anne Stone on MovingStories.TV!
http://www.movingstories.tv/author-bi...

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Similar to Dead Girls by Nancy Less only it's one story about two sisters. I liked it, but felt that I was reading above the surface.

[Barb]

there are some great parts in this book...glad i finished it...but not a favorite