Visible Worlds

by Marilyn Bowering

In Visible Worlds, award-winning Canadian poet and playwright Marilyn Bowering has created a beguiling, multilayered novel that brings together two seemingly disparate stories as it traces the shattering personal consequences of war.

Visible Worlds begins in 1960, with the death of Nate Bone on a Winnipeg football field, as his family and friends stand by and watch. The story then shifts to the tundra of Siberia, where, at the same time, a young woman identified only as Fika is trying to make her way from the Soviet Union to freedom. As the novel unfolds, these two seemingly unrelated events--literally worlds apart--become key pieces in Bowering's astonishing fictional puzzle.

That puzzle is assembled by Albrecht Storr, one of twin sons of German immigrants, who becomes the primary narrator of the novel. Looking back to 1935, when he, his brother Gerhard, and Nate were children together, Albrecht slowly recounts a chain of extraordinary events set off when Nate, still suffering from the death of his sister, kidnaps an infant girl. That reckless, long undetected act leaves few lives unaffected, and will lead, a quarter of a century later, to Fika's remarkable journey across the spare, life-threatening, yet inconceivably beautiful frozen landscape.

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Canada, Literary Fiction

304 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1997

About the author

MARILYN BOWERING’s first novel, To All Appearances A Lady, was a New York Times Notable Book. Her second novel, Visible Worlds, was short-listed for the prestigious Orange Prize, nominated for the Dublin IMPAC Prize, and awarded the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize. Visible Worlds was praised by The Independent as “a tour de force … a wonderful piece of storytelling” and by The New York Times Book Review as “a vast, sprawling feast of a book.” Her novel What it Takes to Be Human was praised by The Globe and Mail as “a great novel… [Bowering] does not seek moments to be brilliant: those moments just arrive.” A new novel, The Unfinished World, was published in late 2025. Bill Gaston, author of Juliet Was a Surprise and The World, called The Unfinished World "a beautiful, insightful novel that performs a remarkable trick with history, time, and memory, a brilliant interweaving that is both teasingly cerebral as well as richly heartfelt.”

More Richly in Earth, part memoir and part literary investigation of a 17th century female Scottish Gaelic bard, was published by McGill Queen’s Press in 2024 and was long-listed for the Saltire Prize. The Scottish Gaelic writer Maoilios Caimbeul called it "a major work."

Marilyn Bowering is also an award-winning poet and librettist. Jan Zwicky says of Bowering, Her brilliant imagistic gift is always offered in service to the mystery of insight, the other invisible worlds gathered close in this one. Bowering’s poetry includes Human Bodies: Collected Poems 1987-1999, Green, an interplay of form and conversations and Soul Mouth, a book of story and memoir poems. With Threshold (photographs by Xan Shian), Marilyn Bowering extends the conversation to an encounter with a 17th century female Scottish Gaelic bard. Of What Is Long Past Occurs in Full Light (illustrations by Ken Laidlaw), Jan Zwicky comments, Despite her unflinching acknowledgement of the horrors humans visit on themselves and others, her vision is grounded in the subtle integrity of love. A new book of poetry, Frayed Linens, will be published in November 2025.

Marilyn Bowering has received many poetry prizes including the Ruth and David Lampe Award, the Gwen MacEwen Poetry prize, the Pat Lowther Prize, the Dorothy Livesay Prize, several National Magazine Awards, two nominations for the Governor General’s award, and shortlisting for the Prix Italia and the Sony Award. An opera, Marilyn Forever (composer Gavin Bryars), has received production premieres (2013-2022) in Victoria, BC; Long Beach, Ca.; Adelaide, Australia; Vienna, Austria; Oxford and Glasgow, UK; and Hagen and Saarbrücken, Germany. Bowering’s work has been translated into a number of languages including Spanish, Finnish, German, Romanian, Russian, and Punjabi.
Marilyn Bowering was born in Winnipeg and grew up in Victoria, BC. She has lived in various parts of Canada and in Greece, Scotland and Spain and now makes her home on Vancouver Island.

Reviews

[Simone Beg · Rating 4 out of 5]

It weaves a family history and tragedy spanning over continents and decades, from Canada, over Germany to Russia, from WW2 to recent times.

The narrative freely jumps between places and times. It takes some time to figure out who is connected to who in what way and why we should suddenly care for apparently random new characters in completely different places for a chapter or two.

Either way, the writer does manage to set fitting moods for all the places and milleus. And despite it due to its relatively slow pacing maybe not being the most exciting read, it still felt rewarding once all the different story lines started to tie together.

The sometimes quite heavy topics don't really make for the best beach vacation read maybe, but I would recommend cuddling up with this at home on a cold or rainy day.

[Novanz · Rating 4 out of 5]

As is mentioned in a review in the back of the book, this story drives you on in the quest to find out exactly how the two stories weave themselves together, and of course how everything turns out in the end!

It also sent me on a mission to learn more about parts of history that I previously didn't know much about.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one is between three and four stars for me.

It is a very Canadian book, more in an Atom Egoyan than a LM Montgomery kind of way.

The book is often dark and more graphic than I would prefer. Often, I actively disliked the main characters. But, I found it to be a compelling read and I kept reading it.

I will look up other work by this author.

[Liesel Schuster · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was a good book, overall. I picked this one up and thought I should try something different. Visible Worlds is not the kind of book I usually read and I can't say I loved it, but I can appreciate the story that was told and acknowledge that it was written well.

[Donna Spruijt-metz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty compelling read - historical to some extent - WW2 and Korean War - not subjects I usually gravitate to, but weaves stories together from then and the 60's, and there is a lot of snow and a lot of Russia - really beautiful

[Josef Stringfellow · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved it way more for the first half as I couldn’t put it down. Some pretty dark themes and a little confusing with the time switching but I do love a slow burner. Ending felt a little flat.

[Cassandra · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting book... although all the jumping around in time gets confusing. If you're looking for an uplifting read, this definitely isn't it. But it's well-written and an interesting story.