The blurb hints at it but these stories are about complicated feelings around family. They are not easy reads though many of them seem to start that way, slowly reeling you in until you’re aware of the tense or awkward or downright abusive undercurrents guiding each character.

Many of these stories focus on father figures and their relationships with their children. Some of my favourite stories were “Simple Recipes”, a story of a father who teaches his daughter how to prepare rice but has a fraught relationship with his son; “House”, where the children await the return of their long-missing mother; and “A Map of the City” about a father who brings his daughter to his furniture store each day and longs for his home country.

There are so many Vancouver touches in the stories, mentions of city landmarks or street names that were a lovely little touch to pick up on as a reader in the same city. As with most short story collections I read, I would love to go through this one again to find even more to enjoy in each story.