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Mind the Gap
250 pages, Paperback
Published April 15, 2026
About the author
Alice Zorn
6 books19 followersOriginally from Hamilton, Ontario, Alice Zorn has now lived for many years in Montreal. Her most recent novel, Colours in Her Hands, welcomes the reader into Mina's curious, sometimes puzzling, sometimes frustrating world.
Her novel, Five Roses, was nominated for the Ontario Library Association's 2017 Evergreen Award and has been translated into French.
She has also published a novel, Arrhythmia, and a book of short fiction, Ruins & Relics, which was a finalist for the 2009 Quebec Writers' Federation First Book Prize.
Her new book of short fiction, Mind the Gap, was released in 2026.
Her novel, Five Roses, was nominated for the Ontario Library Association's 2017 Evergreen Award and has been translated into French.
She has also published a novel, Arrhythmia, and a book of short fiction, Ruins & Relics, which was a finalist for the 2009 Quebec Writers' Federation First Book Prize.
Her new book of short fiction, Mind the Gap, was released in 2026.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
May 28, 2026
4.5
Before I forget, I want to say how much I enjoyed this collection of character-driven relationship-focussed travel tales. Alice Zorn's characters are always a treat to spend time with. I know, having read Colours in Her Hands, and Five Roses. These new stories aren't destination pieces. You wouldn't even guess from the title -- Mind the Gap -- that each story involves a trip. But who doesn't love a trip?
If it is the journey that counts not the vacationing aspect, it's because for travel to be good it must change the traveller... But don't trust me, trust the stories. One of the shortest and most impactful opens Mind the Gap. Born-Died. A girl in search of her biological parents travels to Guanajuato and is shocked by what she discovers. Another, What the Dead Want, reunites an estranged couple by means of a 5-minute conversation that thrusts one of them on a death-defying Texas road trip, ferrying an urn. Short life-altering conversations might be counted as one of Zorn's specialties. At the outset of The Land of Clouds, Patricia is mending an ancient hem when Nita walks in and watches, but she's leaving, and to Patricia's amazement she's leaving a museum-worthy piece behind, along with a phrase - the land of clouds - which becomes somewhere that Patricia must go.
I've been to Morocco. Morocco is the last story in Mind the Gap (which is also the title of one of the middle stories), and the longest. Morocco is long enough and tense enough that it got on my nerves, but what an ending!
Zorn's talent lies not only in the difficult art of character-driven story-telling, but in her peerless ability to bring places to life with her deft off-centre descriptions. They stick in our memory. It is when the material world speaks and we listen that transformations, and art, begins.
Before I forget, I want to say how much I enjoyed this collection of character-driven relationship-focussed travel tales. Alice Zorn's characters are always a treat to spend time with. I know, having read Colours in Her Hands, and Five Roses. These new stories aren't destination pieces. You wouldn't even guess from the title -- Mind the Gap -- that each story involves a trip. But who doesn't love a trip?
If it is the journey that counts not the vacationing aspect, it's because for travel to be good it must change the traveller... But don't trust me, trust the stories. One of the shortest and most impactful opens Mind the Gap. Born-Died. A girl in search of her biological parents travels to Guanajuato and is shocked by what she discovers. Another, What the Dead Want, reunites an estranged couple by means of a 5-minute conversation that thrusts one of them on a death-defying Texas road trip, ferrying an urn. Short life-altering conversations might be counted as one of Zorn's specialties. At the outset of The Land of Clouds, Patricia is mending an ancient hem when Nita walks in and watches, but she's leaving, and to Patricia's amazement she's leaving a museum-worthy piece behind, along with a phrase - the land of clouds - which becomes somewhere that Patricia must go.
I've been to Morocco. Morocco is the last story in Mind the Gap (which is also the title of one of the middle stories), and the longest. Morocco is long enough and tense enough that it got on my nerves, but what an ending!
Zorn's talent lies not only in the difficult art of character-driven story-telling, but in her peerless ability to bring places to life with her deft off-centre descriptions. They stick in our memory. It is when the material world speaks and we listen that transformations, and art, begins.
May 2, 2026
A wonderfully written short story travel fiction collection that explores the complexities of relationships and identity in a relatable and compelling way. A great read.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews