The stories begin after the father has moved his family to a rural area on the Quebec side of the Ottawa River, where he has taken a job painting fleur-de-lis on tin trays in a nearby factory. Itani expands her controlof the short story medium, with her novel, Leaning, Leaning Over Water, a series of connected short stories.

This is a book that brings comfort and joy.” - Linda Spalding, Governor General’s Award-winning author of The Purchase “Itani's company is Always Worth Keeping but this new set of characters is grieving in surprising and diverse and sometimes embarrassing ways, and doing it so wholeheartedly and experimentally, that I jumped into the group of them for good and keeps. This moving, funny and deeply empathic new novel reminds us that life, with all its twists and turns, never loses its capacity to surprise. These six strangers are learning that new beginnings are always possible. They are soon joined by Allam, a Syrian refugee with his own story to tell.

Four people turn up for the first meeting: Gwen, recently widowed, finds herself pet-sitting a cantankerous parrot Chiyo, a forty-year-old fitness instructor, has cared for her unyielding but gossip-loving mother through the final days of her life Addie, pre-emptively grieving a close friend who is seriously ill and Tom, an antique dealer and amateur poet who, deprived of home baking since becoming a widower, comes to the first meeting hoping cake will be served. When her longtime friend Cassandra, café owner, suggests that she start up a conversation group. Hazzley is at loose ends, even three years after the death of her husband.

Requiem book frances itani