The Checkout Girl (25 page)

Susan Zettell is the author of two short story collections,
Night Watch
and
Holy Days of Obligation
. Her stories have also been anthologized in
Quintet, Spider Women, The Day the Men Went to Town
and
The Company We Keep
. She edited, along with Frances Itani, the posthumous story collection
One of the Chosen
by Danuta Gleed.
The Checkout Girl
is her first novel.

Born and raised in Kitchener, Ontario, Zettell has lived in Cambridge, Vancouver, Halifax, Ottawa and Whitehorse. She now lives in Cape Breton with her husband.

Holy Days of Obligation

Holy Days of Obligation
is a collection of short stories which weaves together the family history of a working-class Catholic family. Set in industrial Ontario, the stories are narrated by Bertie, who is the oldest of nine children. Bertie uneasily straddles two worlds: that of her parents, Frank and Elizabeth, who have too many children and not enough money, and that of her siblings, with whom Bertie shares the confidences and frustrations and adventures of growing up.

Night Watch

In
Night Watch
, Susan Zettell looks unflinchingly at life's bountiful sorrows: the loss felt by abandoned children, the sudden intrusion of sickness or death, the fierce love suffered by the mother of a troubled child, the journey away from home and the shining, difficult path of return. These are stories about rising to the surface, about bravely striking out and beginning again after loss. Zettell's handling of her characters makes us feel as if this is not fiction at all, but real life floating on the page. Her characters take us with them as they break through to light, and air, and sometimes laughter, finding their obstacles suddenly fluid as water, thin as a pane of glass, and changeable as a heart.