A woman's lover from her youth resurfaces in her adult life, and she is drawn into the turmoil surrounding disturbing accusations about his Nazi past. From pre WWI Dresden, Germany to contemporary urban Toronto, the dual point of view narrative crosses continents and moves through time as it explores the ambiguity of human emotion, how our natures can embody both the ideals and delights of love alongside the most base and dispassionate sensibilities.

Ruth Walker's profile page

Ruth E. Walker's first submission won Canadian Living magazine's 1996 short story contest. Since then, her fiction and poetry have appeared in Canadian publications such as Geist and Prairie Fire, in the U.S. in the Utne Reader Online and Literary Mama, and in the U.K. in Chapman and Rain Dog. She is a founding editor (1999-2007) for the Canadian journal LICHEN Arts & Letters Preview. Her work has also appeared in Canadian Architecture and Design, Metroland newspapers and, for the past eleven years, on the desks of various politicians and bureaucrats in Ontario.

Living Underground

by Mary E

Walker’s first novel (2012) is an intriguing story. Through the opening scenes, set in the 1960s, in Scarborough Ontario, flashback techniques uncover a child’s attraction to and confusion over the identity of a mysterious man who rents a basement apartment in her mother’s house. Over his short stay, the renter introduces the young teen to Mozart and opera, instilling her lifelong passion for classical music. As the woman grows up, the mystery man’s reappearance in her life compels her to unravel suspicious threads that may link him to Nazi war crimes. This intrusion comes at a time when she is coping with a demanding career, marital problems and a broken relationship with her teenage daughter. Walker draws the reader into the woman’s difficult dilemma, while trying to resolve her own childhood issues. See Living Underground Book Trailer http://vimeo.com/62185005