"One of Canada's best kept literary secrets."—
Harper's Magazine
"Hilarious, touching and delightful . . . brilliant concision and understated humor."—
Los Angeles Times
Vital Signs
brings together the collected novellas by a modern master of the form, by a writer who Alice Munro has said "often comes as close to the baffling comedy of human experience as a writer can get." Elegant, wry, compassionate, and mischievous, with echoes of Kingsley Amis, Evelyn Waugh, and Muriel Spark,
will pierce both funny bone and heart.
The author of more than a dozen books,
John Metcalf
is one of the most celebrated writers, editors, and anthologists in Canada.