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Instructions for the Drowning

By: Steven Heighton
Narrated by: Amos Crawley
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Publisher's summary

“To say Heighton is an immensely talented writer is true enough but insufficient ... As good a writer as Canada has ever produced.”—National Post

The unforgettable last collection by the bestselling author of The Shadow Boxer

A man recalls his father's advice on how to save a drowning person, but struggles when the time comes to use it. A wife’s good deed leaves a couple vulnerable at the moment when they’re most in need of security—the birth of their first child. Newly in love, a man preoccupied by accounts of freak accidents is befallen by one himself. In stories about love and fear, idealisms and illusions, failures of muscle and mind and all the ways we try to care for one another, Steven Heighton’s Instructions for the Drowning is an indelible last collection by a writer working at the height of his powers.

©2023 Steven Heighton (P)2023 John Metcalf
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Critic reviews

“This last collection is one to be savoured.”—Toronto Star

“In Instructions for the Drowning, however, he uses his poet’s precision, his depth as a novelist, and his intimacy as a memoirist to give us a glimpse of the closure he may have hoped for—for himself, for his characters, and also for his readers.”—The Walrus

“Masterful ... the Joycean stories collected in Instructions for the Drowning are searing reminders: that the other side of rage is a vale of tears.”—Foreword Reviews (starred)

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