The Freedom in American Songs: Stories

"Utterly original."?O, The Oprah Magazine

"Absorbing, earnest. . . . Beautifully written."?The New York Times Book Review

"Her lyrical voice and her crystalline landscape are enchanting."?The New Yorker

"She captures the way the truth both imprisons us and sets us free. . . . Simple, touching, real, absolutely convincing and sympathetic."?The Rumpus

"A major writer."?Kirkus Reviews, starred review

A Library Journal BEA Book that Buzzed, 2014

Meet Xavier Boland, the untouchable cross-dresser, whose walk is loose and carefree as an old Broadway tune. Meet barmy Ms. Penrice, clambering up a beechnut tree at the age of seventy-six. Meet a Zamboni mechanic turned funeral porteur, Madame Poirer's lapdog (and its chastity belt), a congregation of hard-singing, sex-crazed Pentecostals, and more. With The Freedom in American Songs, Kathleen Winter brings her quirky sensuality, lyrically rendered settings, and off-key humor to bear on a new short story collection about modern loneliness, small-town gay teenagers, catastrophic love, gut-wrenching laughter in the absolute wrong places, and the holiness of ordinary life.

Kathleen Winter's debut novel, Annabel, was shortlisted for the Orange Prize, the IMPAC Dublin Award, and the three biggest fiction prizes in Canada; it won the Thomas Head Raddall Award (2011) and an Independent Literary Award (2010); it was selected as a New York Times Editor's Choice for 2011 and has been translated around the world. Born in the United Kingdom, Winter now lives in Montreal after spending many years in Newfoundland.