When a woman discovers a fortune in the attic, she begins a pilgrimage that takes her to the knife-edge between blessing and curse. Two fatherless children think Mr. Crisander is nothing more than the creepy next-door neighbor—until they nearly kill his pot-bellied pig and learn the secrets of his past. A young girl talks about grade six, stealing cigarettes, and her sister's no-food diet while being photographed by an Internet pornographer.
The stories of Suitable Precautions are fresh and haunting, resonant with the bitter beauty of lives derailed, reclaimed, celebrated, and questioned. By turns funny and absurd, unexpected and devastating, these stories reveal the strange and tenuous bonds between people in love, marriage, and friendship.
Laura Boudreau's work has been published in Canada, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Switzerland. She lives in London, England, where she works in publishing.