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Fiction Literary

We are Already Ghosts

by (author) Kit Dobson

Publisher
University of Calgary Press
Initial publish date
May 2024
Category
Literary, 21st Century, Family Life

  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9781773855271
    Publish Date
    May 2024
    List Price
    $34.99

  • Hardback

    ISBN
    9781773855264
    Publish Date
    May 2024
    List Price
    $54.99

  • eBook

    ISBN
    9781773855295
    Publish Date
    May 2024
    List Price
    $19.99

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Description

The Briscoe-MacDougall family retire to their lakeside cabin each summer. This annual vacation is at time to unwind and refresh, a time to relax away from the hustle and bustle of city life.

We are Already Ghosts joins the Briscoe-MacDougalls in the summer of 1996 and returns to them at five-year intervals. William, Clare, Helen, Michael, John, Doug, Mike, Jéanne, Françoise, Celeste, Daphne, Benjamin, and Mackenzie the dog live, grow up, and grow old as the world changes in small ways and in devastating ones. The shock of 9/11 and the war in Afghanistan tear across the globe; the Great Recession steals jobs, savings, and houses; and the politics of colonial Canada come evermore into focus. Marriages are made and marriages fall apart, babies are born, lives end, careers are made and broken, the trash gets taken to the dump, the trees bud and then they lose their leaves. The cabin remains and the family returns, year after year.

Impeccably written, crisp, and direct, We are Already Ghosts is a turn-of-the-millennium family epic that documents and challenges Canadian life. Author Kit Dobson writes in conversation with the literary tradition, creating a narratively complex, compelling, and smart novel that is a pleasure to read yet lingers in the mind long after the covers are closed.

About the author

Kit Dobson lives and works in Calgary / Treaty 7 territory in southern Alberta. His previous books include Malled: Deciphering Shopping in Canada and he is a professor in the Department of English at the University of Calgary. He grew up in many places across Canada, but returned again and again to the landscapes of northern Alberta where his family members settled – and that continue to animate his thinking.

Kit Dobson's profile page

Other titles by

Field Notes on Listening

by (author) Kit Dobson

All the Feels / Tous les sens

Affect and Writing in Canada / Affect et écriture au Canada

edited by Marie Carrière, Ursula Mathis-Moser & Kit Dobson

Dissonant Methods

Undoing Discipline in the Humanities Classroom

edited by Ada S. Jaarsma & Kit Dobson

Malled

Deciphering Shopping in Canada

by (author) Kit Dobson

Producing Canadian Literature

Authors Speak on the Literary Marketplace

by (author) Kit Dobson & Smaro Kamboureli

Transnationalism, Activism, Art

edited by Kit Dobson & Aine McGlynn

Please, No More Poetry

The Poetry of derek beaulieu

by (author) Derek Beaulieu & Kit Dobson

Transnational Canadas

Anglo-Canadian Literature and Globalization

by (author) Kit Dobson