The Beggar’s Garden, Michael Christie (HarperCollins Canada)
Well before the forces of Occupy Vancouver staked out their territory in front of the Vancouver Art Gallery, Michael Christie was giving voice to the lonely and disaffected denizens of the city’s Downtown Eastside. His suite of stories set in and around that troubled neighbourhood focuses on the downtrodden – addicts and schizophrenics, the homeless and unwanted. The stories in The Beggar’s Garden are spare and unsentimental, and dramatize the often desperate ways human beings strive for connection and succour in a world that seems intent on withholding both. This past year saw no shortage of strong collections of short fiction from Canadian writers; Christie’s debut collection stands out as tough-minded and compassionate, precisely rendered and deeply felt.
