Sarah Selecky

Write What You Want To Read.


BOOKS

Radiant Shimmering Light: A Novel
This Cake Is for the Party
The Missing Story



Radiant Shimmering Light: A Novel

“Selecky bucks expectations…a radically gentle takedown of capitalist spiritualism.” — Entertainment Weekly

“An intriguing novel which will elicit a wide range of responses from readers. I can’t think of a more perfect novel for a book club.” — Readings Australia

A sharply funny and wise debut novel about female friendship, the face we show the world online, and being a spiritual girl in a material world, from the Scotiabank Giller Prize–shortlisted author of This Cake Is for the Party

Lilian Quick has looked up to her cousin Florence her whole life. Florence is everything Lilian is not—brave, confident, quick to find adventure and American. The women have been out of touch for years due to a family rift, but Lilian, childless, single and self-employed as a pet portraitist, has been watching Florence for years. Florence is now Internet-famous as Eleven Novak, the face of a compelling new feminine lifestyle empowerment brand.

When Eleven comes to town as part of her sales tour, she offers Lilian a place at the Temple, her Manhattan office. Despite twenty years of silence, Eleven welcomes her long-lost cousin with open arms, and the two women begin a new relationship.

Lilian quickly enrols in the Ascendency, Eleven’s signature program:

an expensive three-month training seminar on empowered leadership, spiritual awakening, and sales and marketing. Eleven is going to help her cousin rise up to be her highest self: confident, affluent and self-actualized.

Lilian’s sensitive, artistic nature is stretched by the work she does in the Ascendency, and pushed even further by her cousin’s careful life coaching. In just three months, Lilian’s life changes drastically and becomes everything she’s dreamed of. But is it everything she wants? And can she trust everything Eleven says?

Available now in Canada, Australia/NZ, and the UK. Available for preorder now in the U.S. (December 4 2018).

Optioned for television by Muse Entertainment.

 

 

Buy Now (Canada)

 

 

Pre-Order (U.S.)

 

Download book club questions (PDF):

Podcast Interviews

A candid conversation with Misread Podcast

A conversation with Kim Davids Mandar Bookish Radio

TNP102: Sarah Selecky + Radiant Shimmering Light (Carmen Spagnola) Numinous Podcast

#100: A conversation with Caroline Donahue The Secret Library

A book review on Radio New Zealand

“In Radiant Shimmering Light, [Sarah Selecky] nails the Perfect-Yourself 35-43 gen in all of its hopeful internet-brand-conscious pyramid-scheming empowering goddessiness. Social satire + cultural insight whipped into a yummy froth! You’ll laugh + shed a tiny precious tear, my petals!”
— @MargaretAtwood

“Selecky pokes fun at the culture of online empowerment that attracts women in particular — that strange mix of spirituality, philosophy and self-help with a healthy dash of capitalism — without mocking or dismissing it. . . . Smart and subtle.” — Toronto Star

This Cake Is for the Party

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Scotiabank Giller Prize Finalist, Shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writer’s Prize, Best First Book Award, Longlisted for the Frank O’Connor Short Story Award, Winner, CBC Award: Best New Fiction,The Globe 100: Best Canadian Fiction

In these ten stories, linked frequently by the sharing of food, Sarah Selecky reaffirms the life of everyday situations with startling significance. For fiction readers who seek stories that reflect the joys and pitfalls of marriage, fidelity, fertility, and relationship woes, this collection is a conversation starter.

This Cake Is for the Party reminds us that the best parts of our lives are often the least flashy. Reminiscent of early Margaret Atwood, with echoes of Lisa Moore and Ali Smith, these absorbing stories are about love and longing, and touch us in a myriad of subtle and affecting ways.

Heralded by writers and reviewers alike, it’s clear that Selecky displays a rare combination of nuance and power. From a dying mother-­in­-law to a controlling father, a best friend’s heartbreaking admission, a drug ­testing clinic, and one thousand wax Buddha candles, ­the emotions and objects in our lives are brought to light with brilliant style and craft in this collection.

“The subjects of these 10 sparkling stories tend to live everyday lives, with everyday problems and neuroses about food, friends, lovers, parents and spouses. And yet they’re utterly fascinating. Selecky’s writing, so unfussy and fresh, lures the reader in over and over again.”
— The New York Times Book Review

The Missing Story

themissingstory

This story, called “This Cake Is for the Party,” was the very first story Sarah wrote for the book. Because of its special status as a prequel, it didn’t fit in the collection, and she saved it as a stand alone story. Cover photograph and design by Michel Vrana.

Read this story to find out what happened to David and Bonnie a few months before “Standing Up For Janey.”

Read the Story

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“Selecky’s stories are also ridiculously witty. Compelling, clever and exceptionally crafted, This Cake really delivers.”
Globe and Mail
“The stories are tender, broken, deceptively unassuming then unexpectedly breathtaking.”
Giller jury citation
“Selecky’s writing, so unfussy and fresh, lures the reader in over and over again.”
The New York Times Book Review
“Selecky sinks her teeth into something far more powerful than the violence of loss: she skillfully wrests devastation from its customary gloom of lamentation and regret, and bares its overwhelming beauty.”
Globe and Mail
“Dry and funny, exact and exacting, the 10 short stories in This Cake is for the Party elevate economy of expression itself to an art.”
Giller jury citation
“The subjects of these 10 sparkling stories tend to live everyday lives, with everyday problems and neuroses about food, friends, lovers, parents and spouses. And yet they’re utterly fascinating.”
The New York Times Book Review
“Sarah Selecky’s debut is an exceptional story collection full of regret and celebration, wisdom and wit.”
Globe and Mail

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