Strong collections from a new generation of short story writers – Alexander MacLeod, Laura Boudreau, Michael Christie, and Sarah Selecky, to name just a few – have reinvigorated the form as one of Canada’s most protean and stalwart literary genres. Despite winning the Danuta Gleed Award, Andrew Hood’s debut collection, 2007’s Pardon Our Monsters (Véhicule Press), went largely unnoticed by the reading public. A group of nasty, ironic stories about violence and disaffection, Hood’s collection was refreshingly straightforward and unsentimental, and could easily sit alongside its better-known counterparts. The Montreal author follows it up with another clutch of stories that appear to be just as insistent and invigorating. The Cloaca (Invisible Publishing, $16.95 pa., April) promises stories that are messy, gross, and funny. Just like real life.
