A FEMINIST CLASSIC BY ONE OF CANADA’S FINEST WRITERS

Shirley is a Toronto housewife and her lover Coenraad works for an international organization known only as the Agency. The two meet in exotic locations around the world and they find each other using an intricate code based on notes slipped into the pages of the National Geographic.

Decades into their affair, though, the code has finally been discovered. Via a hurried transmission, Coenraad leads Shirley to the last place she wants to go: her home city of Toronto, where she searches the city for clues about their next rendezvous point. Only, instead of finding her lover, Shirley is confronted with memories of her impoverished immigrant childhood and must take stock of the life she thought was so far removed from all that unhappiness.

“Helen Weinzweig’s voice is original, her language startling and graceful, and the story she tells is as moving as a second chance. Basic Black with Pearls is a portrait of madness and delight—sensitive, funny and unique.” —Alice Hoffman

“As dazzlingly splintered and disorienting as a hall of mirrors, this marvelously inventive sleight-of-pen fantasy may (or may not) represent the jagged self-image of a middle-aged Canadian housewife.” —Kirkus Reviews

“Celebrated in Canada as a feminist classic, Weinzweig’s searing 1980 novel captures a woman’s awakening to her lover’s exploitation . . . . Weinzweig’s prose style is sharp, particularly her dialogue: strange and surprising, it knocks every character interaction askew.” —Publishers Weekly

“Weinzweig’s absurdist take on the existential novel anchored by female experience should be required reading.” —National Post

BASIC BLACK WITH PEARLS

Helen Weinzweig

Afterword by Sarah Weinman

Paperback • $14.95 Also available as an e-book