Threshold: Stories

by Carol Bruneau

Contemporary short story collection exploring privilege, perspective, and contradiction from the celebrated author of Brighten the Corner Where You Are and A Bird on Every Tree.

"Bruneau is a master. We should know this by now."
― Quill & Quire, starred review of A Bird on Every Tree

From the critically acclaimed, award-winning author of Brighten the Corner Where You Are, A Circle on the Surface, and Purple for Sky comes the first collection of short stories since the Thomas Raddall Award–nominated A Bird on Every Tree.

Moving from a worldly insouciance to a reckoning with privilege, the stories in Threshold explore the hypocrisies and contradictions of a world broken by racism, homelessness, and climate change. A woman's grief causes her to see the ghost of her mother in others and herself; an extended honeymoon cruise has a couple contemplating their gene pools, and their future; and a son's disappearance prompts his parents to study the migratory patterns of herons.

From the piazzas of Naples and Palermo to Halifax's urban wilderness, waterways, and backyards, Bruneau writes with characteristic empathy, humour, and linguistic precision. These luminescent stories reach beyond first-world worries toward compassion and hope, human resilience, and the resiliency of nature.

Genres: Short Stories

288 pages, Paperback

Published April 30, 2024

About the author

Carol Bruneau is the author of nine books: three short fiction collections and six novels, including Brighten the Corner Where You Are (Fall 2020) and A Circle on the Surface (2018.) Her first novel, Purple for Sky, won the 2001 Thomas Head Raddall Atlantic Fiction Award and the Dartmouth Book Award. She lives with her husband in Halifax.

Reviews

[Jim Fisher · Rating 5 out of 5]

I always love Carol's stories, short or long.

[Mary B · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars
A collection of short stories, most of which were set in and around Halifax, Nova Scotia (the author's home), and most of which had some connection to the pandemic in the early 2020s.
I enjoyed most of the stories for various reasons, and found I enjoyed more of them as I progressed through the pages. I did have some confusion with the various titles, which didn't always (to me) connect to the substance. It seemed that someone established the order of appearance but forgot to change the titles.
There was great variety in subject matter and themes, exploring coping mechanisms within a pandemic; isolation in quarantine; family relationships during a difficult time; becoming separated from loved ones with no recourse and/or motivation, and more.
As mentioned previously, I enjoyed the stories, although admittedly I might not have understood them entirely.

[Ian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Throughout her career, Carol Bruneau has excelled at uncovering the drama in the quotidian and making the intimate and personal universal. In her fourth story collection, Threshold, Bruneau writes about small and large moments in people’s lives, moments of discovery or realization that leave them forever altered. The volume opens with “Turn Our Mourning into Dance,” in which middle-aged Charlotte is tormented by visions of her mother, who died young after wasting away from a degenerative illness. The woman, Anna, appears out of nowhere at random moments, leaving Charlotte traumatized and suffering the heaviness of loss all over again. At the same time Charlotte is struggling to contend with her daughter, Bethy, who has finished school and now seems content to lounge around the house in her pajamas all day and sulk about wanting an exotic pet. We soon realize that Charlotte’s struggle is with her “in between” status, her loss of connection with both Anna and Bethy, which paradoxically leaves her feeling she’s betrayed both. Much of Bruneau’s fiction takes place in the Canadian Maritimes, and the stories in Threshold are no exception. But several in this volume are set in Italy and feature Canadian couples striving to adapt to and comprehend each other and their alien surroundings. The most detailed and evocative of these is “A Procession of Night Owls,” in which Tom and Rosa are visiting Naples for what they believe will be the last time. It is their final day in Italy, and they’ve booked an early morning taxi to get them to the airport for a 6:00AM flight. Rosa narrates a story in which the best laid plans go awry: the taxi fails to show and, with the minutes ticking by, her panic escalating, desperate measures are required. But between episodes describing this unexpected dawn adventure, Rosa recounts earlier trips to Naples and her and Tom’s shared experience of seeing beyond lurking dangers and urban squalor, and, against the odds, falling in love with a city that is not easy for tourists to navigate and does not relinquish its secrets easily, or willingly. The story is a pleasurable travelogue, a reminiscence of initial trepidation and unease giving way to hard-won affection. It is also brilliantly paced and suspenseful, as the couple’s situation turns dire and it appears they will miss their flight. Family life plays a large role in this volume, and other stories feature a couple contemplating parenthood, a missing son, and a husband deranged by jealousy. Threshold demonstrates (once again) that Carol Bruneau, her novels notwithstanding, is also a master of the short form. Her prose is punchy and lyrical and replete with passages of great beauty. Without exception, the stories are entertaining and insightful. But Carol Bruneau’s special talent is illuminating the human heart in all its maddening unpredictability and contradictory splendor.

[Emily]

The last story is my favourite

[Rhia · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn't hate it but most of these stories didn't land for me. Authors who set things in Halifax always set them so relentlessly in Halifax.