Hard Travel

A photographer on assignment in Guatemala. A doctor meeting a cancer survivor in the Copper Canyon of Mexico. A woman facing down her unexpected pregnancy at a bluegrass festival in North Carolina. A draft resister arriving in Canada during the Vietnam War.In these short stories by award-winning Canadian writer Lesley Krueger, we meet people at a crossroad in their lives. Travel has taken them away from their roots, stripping away the protections of daily life. Now they must confront decisions they've been avoiding.Seven stories, seven life-changing decisions.Newly published in electronic format, Hard Travel has been praised by the Globe and Mail of Toronto for its "subtle, deft strokes," by the Winnipeg Free Press for its "human appeal," and by the Vancouver Sun for its "most vivid and original imagery.""Hard Travel is a book about change," according to the Sun, "shifts in the axis of understanding that alter perception irrevocably. Each story builds to a crystalline moment of realization that heralds a new phase of life. Krueger does not judge the value of these changes, she observes and interprets."Hard Travel is Lesley Krueger's first published book. Her fifth novel, Time Squared, is due out in September, 2021. Lesley Krueger is an award-winning novelist and filmmaker. Her latest novel, Far Creek Road, will be published by ECW Press this coming October. Set in the early 1960s, the book follows Tink Parker, an adventurous, nosy and very funny nine-year-old living a happy suburban life. But the Cold War is slowly building toward the Cuban Missile Crisis. The world is in danger of ending -- and Tink's innocence comes under threat.According to Sheila Murray, author of Finding Edward, "With the charming and very funny nine-year-old Tink, Krueger has created an unforgettable character whose innocent curiosity busts through the societal conventions of early 1960s Canada. This is a masterful depiction of an atmosphere tense with fear and fuelled by grown-up transgressions, where adult morality is contaminated by politics that tear communities apart."Lesley's previous novel, Time Squared, was published in 2021. Says critic Kerry Clare, "I'll dive right in and tell you that the novel, Time Squared by Lesley Krueger, which I've loved more than I've loved than any book I've read in ages, could be billed as Kate Atkinson's Life After Life meets Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go, if we wanted to underline just how badly you really ought to read it. And oh, you really do."Lesley has written four other novels, two short story collections, a travel memoir and a children's book.She was born in Vancouver, Canada and after living in Boston, Mass., London, England, Rio de Janeiro and Mexico City, she makes her home in Toronto. There she writes fiction, works on films, and plays hockey in a couple of women's beer leagues, at least when her ankle isn't broken.