The Juliet Stories

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Published in Canada by House of Anansi, 2012

 

Published in the UK & Australia by Two Roads Books, 2015

 

Juliet Friesen is ten years old when her family moves to Nicaragua. It is 1984, the height of Nicaragua’s post-revolutionary war, and the peace-activist Friesens have come to protest American involvement. In the midst of this tumult, Juliet’s family lives outside of the boundaries of everyday life. They’ve escaped, and the ordinary rules don’t apply. Threat is pervasive, danger is real, but the extremity of the situation also produces a kind of euphoria, protecting Juliet’s family from its own cracks and conflicts.

A finalist for Canada’s 2012 Governor General’s Award for Fiction

Commended as 2012 Globe and Mail top 100 book

“Snyder’s tone and style is vivid and compelling, and Juliet is both courageous and fragile in a perfectly believable 10-year-old way. She is a voracious reader and dreamer, rolling with the punches that get thrown her way. We can see the flaws in her parents’ marriage through her eyes, and the older and knowing voice never steps in and speaks to the reader.” (Zoe Whittall, The Globe and Mail)

“Like her first book, Hair Hat, Carrie Snyder’s sophomore offering is a collection of linked short stories. Here they are arranged in a novelistic arc, following the titular heroine from a childhood caught between foreign languages and continents to the quiet joys and terrors of adulthood. While laid out chronologically, each story is strong and vibrant enough to stand on its own. Relying on a series of self-contained stories rather than chapters, Snyder is able to fully explore the episodic and fractured nature of memory and life. … She avoids aestheticizing trauma and instead offers strong characterization, clear and lushly poetic language, and above all, the kind of nourishment that comes from a moving story, beautifully told.” (Quill & Quire)

“Snyder’s new book is the rare successful execution, a stream of sensual imagery that grows more sophisticated with each page. The increasing complexity is a neat trick for a coming-of-age tale: the collection’s slow language shift mirrors the development of its title character. Ultimately, despite its lushness—or perhaps because of it—this book demands much from readers, and may frustrate those who expect an A to B progression of drama. For those who endure, the textured imagery, heavy with meaning, provides its own reward. The Juliet Stories highlights the lessons we learn in youth and with age, and the conflict between the freedom we value and the security we desperately need.” (Stacey May Fowles, The Walrus)

“Here is as good a capsule explanation for what happened in Nicaragua as you’ll get from any more conventional historical source … Mature and powerful … Snyder maintains an engaging blog called Obscure CanLit Mama, but if there’s any justice she’ll soon have the option of dropping that first word.” (Ian McGillis, Montreal Gazette)

“Fans of The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver and Paul Theroux’s The Mosquito Coast will love this one. (Chatelaine)

“Excellent … Snyder has an uncanny ability to make the unfamiliar intensely knowable … The Juliet Stories is pitted with a surplus of lovely land mines of revelation, aha moments exploding into wonderful, sometimes profoundly sad, insights.” (Kate Wallace, Telegraph Journal)

“Snyder is phenomenal here, crafting some of the most striking images and beautiful sentences that you will likely read all year. The Juliet Stories is not to be missed.” (Lindsay Rainingbird, Coast)

“Sparkles with nuance and thoughtfulness … engaging … terrific …” (Candace Fertile, Edmonton Journal)

“Similar to Virginia Woolf in style, Snyder’s stream-of-consciousness prose gives the reader a view of Nicaragua from the inside … you may find yourself pleasantly challenged (and enchanted) by Snyder’s impressionistic language and plot fragmented by time and geography.” (Jessica Michalofsky, Winnipeg Review)