Small Change

“Compelling. . . . These linked stories are not so much conventional narratives as unflinching meditations on ambivalent love, the only love worth writing about, as John Updike once said. What readers and even literary jurors are responding to is how close to the bone Hay’s fiction is.” —Montreal Gazette

“One of Ms. Hay’s most remarkable characteristics as a writer is her great economy, her ability to bring time in and out, to give long thoughts in short phrases, to create levels of intimacy and encroachment, to intensify the world by making it tense.” —Ottawa Citizen

“Small Change takes real risks and is an idiosyncratic and bitterly intelligent collection of stories. It is also, paradoxically, both timeless and as fresh as new paint.” —Elisabeth Harvor

“Hay brings together in [Small Change] the revelatory power of narrative, the analytical possibilities of the personal essay and memoir, the investigative discipline of journalism, and the sudden illumination of lyric, and as a result she seems able to pick up almost everything—everything said, and most of what is only whispered in a gesture or a look between friends. . . . Endlessly rewarding. . . . These stories are beautifully written and carefully honed.” —The Malahat Review

“Stories that capture those details, moments, that someone less observant, less sensitive would miss. Language that flows as easily as water.” —Jury Citation, Governor General’s Literary Awards

“Captivating. . . . Fluid, evanescent, rarely in balance, the friendships recounted in these stories are everything but peaceful.” —Toronto Star

“Hay knows how to make a line breathe, and it’s possible to open the book at random to find sharp, almost electric, prose leap out and give off light. . . . Through sparkling prose, Hay is able to flesh out the quirky and individual gestures that make out relationships. . . .” —Ottawa XPress

“One of Canada’s premier writers. . . .” —Canadian Forum