BORROWED MEMORIES

Mark Foss • Literary Fiction / Family Fiction

Book Description

Ivan Pyefinch, a freelance translator, has appointed himself custodian of the family story. Returning to the Thousand Islands for the summer to care for his aging parents, he finds the ground shifting beneath him. His father Horace, a former WWII pilot, is fighting to keep his driver's licence — a last stand against the erosion of independence. His mother Aida wages a quieter, more devastating battle against Alzheimer's. Ivan, caught between the parents who shaped him and the duty he owes them, discovers that the past doesn't stay neatly filed.

Enter Mia Hakim, an immigrant filmmaker who has always preferred other people's memories to her own. She's planning a research trip to Tunisia to trace her lost childhood — a journey threaded through the Arab Spring — and needs Ivan to translate her scenario. When Mia arrives unannounced at the Pyefinch home on the eve of Remembrance Day, a health crisis sets every story on a collision course. Past and future, father and son, memory and truth — each confronts the other in a summer that will redefine what it means to remember.

BORROWED MEMORIES is literary fiction of immense grace and precision: a novel about what we keep, what we lose, and who gets to tell the story. In prose as luminous as the Thousand Islands at golden hour, Mark Foss asks the question that haunts every family — what do we owe the people who gave us our memories, and what happens when theirs begin to fade?

Pull Quotes

\"An evocative and nuanced story. Ivan's ambivalence and longing, caught between his parents and Mia, past and future, make for a fascinating internal journey.\"

Jury, 2020 Guernica Prize

\"A beautiful, heart-wrenching story of family and love and learning when to hold on, and when to let go.\"

Hollay Ghadery, River Street Writing, author of Fuse

\"A fabulous book.\"

Left on the Shelf

\"Captivating, powerful and touching. The fact that Mr. Foss was able to convey such feeling and emotion in so few words demonstrates great writing skill.\"

Sonia Saikaley, New York Journal of Books

Recognition

• Finalist for the 2020 Guernica Prize for Literary Fiction

Author Bio

MARK FOSS is a Canadian author and filmmaker whose fiction explores memory, identity, and the stories we inherit. His short story collection Kissing the Damned and novel Molly O established him as a distinctive voice in Canadian literary fiction. His work with 8th House Publishing includes BORROWED MEMORIES and SPOILERS. He lives in Montreal.

Book Details

Also by This Author

SPOILERS (published by 8th House), MOLLY O, KISSING THE DAMNED

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