An extraordinary collection of stories by Quebec writer and artist, Célyne Fortin, Summer Days shines a gentle light on the many facets of human love. In simple yet moving tales, the author explores with insight and humour the diverse forms in which love manifests. Whether love as a game between lovers, love when partnered by loss, love as longing and searching, the love of an old woman for her cat or love between a dying mother and her daughter – each story holds a mirror up to our own forays in love’s domain. Célyne Fortin introduces the reader to fascinating characters and scenes, painting inner and outer landscapes with deft strokes that reveal unvarnished truths as well as atmospheric washes to sooth the wounded heart. In these subtle encounters a master artist builds a world in which we see ourselves as players in a universal game of love and death, longing, freedom and destiny. Written from a woman’s perspective but of interest to all, the stories of Summer Days have a haunting appeal, lingering in the heart like the memory of a burnished sunset as summer fades away.

A Quebec poet, painter and author Célyne Fortin has published over ten books since the publication of her first poetry collection, Femme fragmentée, by Editions du Noroît in 1982. Summer Days is her first book to be translated into English. Célyne Fortin lives and works in Montreal, Quebec.

A native of Scotland, Margaret Wilson Fuller received an MA from the University of Edinburgh before emigrating to Vancouver, BC. There she lived on a 45-foot yacht while undertaking a Diploma in Translation and an MA in French literature from the University of British Columbia, where she also lectured. In 1995 she moved to Paris where she works as a translator. This is her fifth fiction translation for Ekstasis Editions.