Peter plays the trumpet and works in a kitchen; Stasi tries to climb the corporate ladder and lands in therapy. These sensitive siblings struggle to find their place in the world, seeking intimacy and belonging — or trying to escape it.

A promising audition, a lost promotion, intriguing strangers and a silent lover—in rich, sensual scenes and moody brilliance, The Clarion explores rituals of connection and belonging, themes of intimacy and performance, and how far we wander to find, or lose, our sense of self.

Following the literary realist traditions of Mavis Gallant and Alice Munro, Dunic's debut novel captures the vague if hopeful melancholy of any generation that believes it was never "called" to something great. (From Invisible Publishing)

The Clarion is on the 2023 Scotiabank Giller Prize longlist.

Nina Dunic is a freelance writer and journalist living in Scarborough, Ont. She has been longlisted for the CBC Short Story Prize four times: in 2023 for The Artist, in 2022 for Youth, in 2020 for Bodies and in 2019 for an earlier version of Bodies. The Clarion is her first novel.