In her masterful new collection, The Sleep of Apples, Ami Sands Brodoff writes with passion and consummate skill about nine closely-linked characters who walk the tightrope of survival. Set in a gritty Montreal neighborhood that's been slowly gentrifying over the last two decades, troubled teenagers and an experienced psychiatrist, a truck driver permanently scarred by a near-fatal accident and a recreation therapist, struggle to build a community and make their lives—and their deaths—meaningful.

Fierce, original, and bracingly honest, these unforgettable stories speak to the author's Jewish heritage, her experience as a cancer survivor, and loving mother to a gay son and a transgender son. The stories dramatize that families are what we create, not necessarily those we are born into, how we all live imperfect lives: We love what we have and mourn what we've lost.

Readers are witnesses, as these indelible characters gain strength, insight, and empathy through their struggles and suffering. They each bear the scars of trauma, but possess the gift of resilience. (From Inanna Press)

The Sleep of Apples is available in September 2021.