Ring

From the Giller Prize-winning author of Fifteen Dogs, the final installment in the massively ambitious Quincunx by one of Canada's literary giants

"Love comes from uncertainty In fact, love is uncertainty's greatest gift " This is the message at the heart of Ring, Andr Alexis's last installment of the Quincunx, a sequence of five novels that each borrow from a very different genre. Ring is, of course, the romance.

Ring is the story of Gwenhwy far Lloyd, a woman of Welsh and Kenyan heritage who, on falling in love with Tancred Palmieri, is given a ring and three books by her mother, Helen. As it happens, the ring is - or so her mother believes - magical. If Helen is to be believed, it grants Gwen the ability to change three things about her beloved - his psychology, his character, the course of his life - before marrying him. Or if Gwen so chooses, she can change one physical aspect of him - height, bigness of ears, etc. - and one inner aspect.

Ring, provoked by a reading of Harlequin romances, is a mash-up of romance novel conventions and a sunny meditation on the past, on language, on poetry, and yes, on love.

"A great novel doesn't try to answer questions, but, like Days by Moonlight, complicates them." --The Globe and Mail on Days by Moonlight

"This imaginative travelogue will amuse readers even as it raises weightier issues." --Publishers Weekly on Days by Moonlight

"I'm far from being a dog person, but as a book person I loved this smart, exuberant fantasy from start to finish." --The Guardian on Fifteen Dogs

"A clever exploration of our essence, communication, and how our societies are organized." --Kirkus Reviews on Fifteen Dogs