Heidi Sopinka isn't afraid of re-reading Virginia Woolf
Dog-eared Reads | CBC Radio | Posted: March 27, 2020 5:09 PM | Last Updated: August 28, 2020
This interview originally aired on March 28, 2020.
Heidi Sopinka is a Toronto-based writer, editor and designer. Her debut 2018 novel, The Dictionary of Animal Languages, features an artist in her 90s who is illustrating a glossary of animal sounds.
Sopinka describes herself as "a big re-reader." The author that she turns to time and time again is Virginia Woolf.
She stopped by The Next Chapter to explain why.
"One author that I often reread is Virginia Woolf. I've read To the Lighthouse a bajillion times and I always find something new about that book. I'm always amazed that, for instance, for a certain portion she puts the entire book to sleep.
It's utterly gripping, every single time I read it.
"It's 30 pages where these incredible things happen within square brackets. I just marvel at her sentences and how she's able to get the consciousnesses of several characters in the book. It's utterly gripping, every single time I read it."
Heidi Sopinka's comments have been edited for length and clarity.