Oct 4, The Taste of Ashes by Sheila Peters

The Taste of Ashes by Sheila Peters

Caitlin Press (March 15, 2012)

Isabel Lee’s early life in rural BC was forever changed by a brief but powerful love affair with a young Oblate priest from Guatemala. Now a recovering alcoholic, Isabel struggles to pull the tattered fragments of her life together and repair the damage to her relationship with her estranged daughter.

Once idealistic and hopeful, Father Àlvaro Ruiz now has his own demons to confront. Tortured at the hands of the Guatemalan authorities and unable to escape the wounds of his past, Àlvaro returns to Canada seeking sanctuary, a broken man with a tenuous grip on his faith.

Isabel’s and Àlvaro’s stories slowly weave back together and they are eventually faced with their greatest challenge yet: can they bring themselves to forgive and help each other find a way into their daughter’s damaged heart?

About the author:

Sheila Peters' work has been widely anthologized, and has been published in several Canadian literary journals, including Event, Prairie Fire, Grain, The Malahat Review, and Descant.

Creekstone Press published her first book, Canyon Creek: A Script in 1998 and Beach Holme Press in Vancouver published Tending the Remnant Damage, a collection of linked short stories, in 2001. The weather from the west came out in 2007 and now The Taste of Ashes, a novel, has been published by Caitlin Press.

I asked Sheila a few questions about herself and her writing:

Book Club Buddy: Why do you write? Why do you believe writing matters?

Sheila Peters: I write to explore how I think and feel about things; it’s only when I’m writing that I go into the zone where distractions disappear and I feel connected at some deep level to being in the right place in the world.

BCB: What do you enjoy most about writing?

Sheila Peters: Once I’ve created the substance of a story, I love fine tuning it, polishing it, playing with both the ideas and the words to dig deeper.

BCB: What quality do you most value in yourself or others?

Sheila Peters: Speaking out on social justice and environmental issues. On the flip side, I admire those who see people clearly but are non-judgmental – something I’m working on.

BCB: In addition to writing, what else are you passionate about?

Sheila Peters: Reading, of course. Literary fiction, mysteries, travel writing, good journalism. I live in the mountains and I love hiking, snowshoeing – that wonderful feeling when you emerge from the trees into the high alpine – not much beats that feeling.

To read more about this book please visit The Taste of Ashes by Sheila Peters at Book Club Buddy.com

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