Read an excerpt
See all author's titles
322 pages trade paperback
Finished books available
Canada: McClelland & Stewart, Apr 2004
ABOUT ANNABEL LYON
(Photo: Rick Loughram)
Annabel Lyon's first book of fiction, the short story collection Oxygen (Porcupine's Quill, 2000), was published to wide acclaim, and was nominated for the Danuta Gleed and ReLit awards. Her short fiction has appeared in numerous publications, including Toronto Life, The Journey Prize Anthology, and Write Turns: New Directions in Canadian Fiction. Lyon is also a frequent contributor to the Vancouver Sun and The Globe and Mail. In addition to creative writing, Annabel Lyon has studied music, philosophy, and law. She lives in Vancouver, where she writes full time.
three novellas by Annabel Lyon
THE THREE NOVELLAS IN THE BEST THING FOR YOU EXPLORE THE FRAGILITY OF LOVE IN A CHANGING CITY
Here, in three novellas, Annabel Lyon reveals the potential for darkness that lurks behind even the most perfect-seeming veneer. In the first novella, “No Fun,” a middle-class family in present-day Vancouver is thrown into turmoil when their teenage son is charged in connection with the beating of a disabled man.
In “The Goldberg Metronome,” a young couple discovers an antique metronome taped up and hidden under a sink in their new apartment. Its dark past weaves a story that crosses centuries and continents.
Then, in the stunning title novella, a riveting and layered film-noirish piece set in wartime 1940s Vancouver, a housewife in her twenties plots and carries out her husband’s murder with sang-froid, and with the help of her lover, a young grocery-store clerk. Later, the son of the insurance agent who loses his job over the woman’s claim must deal with his family’s financial downfall as he nurses his own obsession with her crime and its connection to the music in his head.
Lyon draws us in with her vivid characters and sharp, highly charged prose, and holds us transfixed in the worlds she creates.
PRAISE FOR THE BEST THING FOR YOU
“Annabel Lyon is a sharp, funny, and subversive writer who knows how to keep her readers off-balance.... What is exhilarating about Lyon's work is that she has enough confidence in her imagination and her craft so that she can borrow from the best and still create art that is absolutely her own.” — QUILL & QUIRE, starred review
“Lyon delivers something of a tour de force with this trio of vibrant novellas. Her inventive use of language, her audacity with character, place and plot, reveal an astonishing range.... Annabel Lyon has stretched her wings and let fly. The results are dazzling.” — TORONTO STAR
“The Best Thing for You is a reminder of what a complex, satisfying form the novella can be. At their best, Lyon's are simultaneously drum-tight and idea-rich.... I can't think of a writer with a better command of the English language.” — OTTAWA CITIZEN
“Lyon [has] established herself as this generation's answer to Alice Munro. A master of wordplay and storytelling, Lyon takes readers deep into the hearts and secret desires of her characters.” — THE VANCOUVER SUN
“In The Best Thing for You, Lyon offers up three novellas, each one of them so unique and stylistically different from the others that it would be easy to imagine that they were each penned by a different author. Of course, the fact that Lyon composed all three of these fictions herself is evidence enough of her tremendous talent.” — WINNIPEG FREE PRESS
“Lyon's stories are literary beauties: well crafted with persistent, sparse imagery. Her characters draw you in with their eccentric quirks and complexities, leaving you hungry for the next twisted and tantalizing tale she might weave. The Best Thing for You is truly the best thing to read these days.” — THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT
“Here is yearning, transgression, lust, and all the consequences. Lyon's writing is immaculately clean and driven. These novellas bristle with heat and blood-rushing suspense. Characters wholly unexpected and eerily familiar, sharply felt. Lyon is a dazzling stylist. Here is mastery.” — LISA MOORE, author of Alligator
“Annabel Lyon has no fear: she trains a stark moral searchlight on the snakiest of human dilemmas, while at the same time bestowing upon her characters a tender, tough-minded intelligence that yields fierce insights into the teeth-rattling nature of love. Fetchingly reasonable, stylishly original, these three perfectly poised novellas signal that the form is brilliantly alive and most excellently kicking.” — ELISE LEVINE, author of Requests and Dedications
“Annabel Lyon's writing is fresh, unexpected, and truthful. These three tales explore how we talk to each other and what we notice changing in those we love. Her delivery is savvy, succinct, and wondrous.” — MICHAEL WINTER, author of The Big Why