On an isolated English beach a man looks back on his school days, recalling the joy and torment of a secret love affair with a boy full of strange ideas, a boy obsessed with the language of the King James Bible. Moments from their relationship return to him: the hidden meetings on the beach, the first attempts at sex, the boredom of a school assembly in summertime, the cruelty of a young English teacher. But most of all he remembers the boy’s words. They’re words that, years later, will ha...

In Jack Bootle's Psalm 77, a man looks back on his school days, recalling the joy and torment of a secret love affair with a boy obsessed with the language of the King James Bible. Deep in Ontario cottage country, twins try to navigate the differences between the families we are born into versus the families we choose in Meghan Rose Allen's Eleven Miles There, Twelve Miles Back. On his final assignment, Father Michael is assigned to a war-torn country where he is told a s...

FPQ Complete Collection 1 contains sixteen exceptional stories that were hand-picked by the Found Press staff and originally published in FPQ volumes 1-4. With a stunning range of voices, the unforgettable narratives included in this anthology will take you on a journey around the world, and pull you from one end of the emotional spectrum to the other. Featuring stories by Caroline Adderson, Meghan Rose Allen, Jack Bootle, Julie Dupuis, Cynthia Flood, Andrew Forbes, Danny...

Some time after the incomprehensible death of his son, Joan Miró has settled into his new job working the overnight shift at a Hasty Market in Toronto. He has plenty of time to think beneath the fluorescent lights of the convenience store: of ghosts and late nights, of downtown living and dying, of customer service and self-preservation, of the beauty of the night sky, and of the attempts people make to connect with one another despite seemingly insurmountable distances. These fragments of...

Father Michael, in his final assignment, has been asked by his Order to help facilitate recovery of an Asian country blighted by war. On the long odyssey into the interior, his driver and translator Trang tells him a story set in a once-famed traveller’s refuge known as the Inn of Tender Embraces. What starts as a simple tale of ill-fated lovers becomes, for Father Michael, a familiar beacon that guides him through the mists of an exotic landscape.“Don McLellan is the kind of wise,...

Deep in the heart of Ontario cottage country, Izza Ingram’s biological family disintegrates when her parents become trapped in a moment Izza can barely remember. Lost to their parents, she and her sister Paulie form an unlikely family unit under the guidance of their parents’ friend Doug. In this trio of their own making, Izza, Paulie, and Doug try to navigate the differences between the families we are born into versus the families we choose.

Charlotte is on the cusp of adolescence, and her world is being turned upside down. Unable to turn to her distant mother or absent father, she searches for guidance on the streets of downtown Toronto—and discovers God (or some version of Him) in the gutter.“The Last Judgment is a story that penetrates into the heart of childhood sadness. Charlotte is without tools to fix what is broken, except for the incredible force of her will. The connections she makes between religion...

The sleepy town of Arbford is a house of cards, and Betty is the sudden gust of wind that unknowingly knocks it to the ground. In this insightful tale, where each of the men is called Mike, and each of their wives have a different name, Betty discovers that finding somewhere to call home isn’t easy. Fun, emotional, and intelligent, Mike Mike Mike Mike is a modern-day fable with a bit of Desperate Housewives thrown in for good measure.“In this cautionary suburban fairy tale...

Marta is a human resources employee at a grocery store chain. She moves through life passively, always taking the path of least resistance. That is, until one day at work, when she is confronted by an ethical dilemma: A hijab-wearing woman. A strict no-hats policy. And then a cultural opportunity: a seminar on the Sunshine Coast, “Ethnicity and Religion in the World Workplace.” With brutal frankness and keen insight, This Is a Love Crime explores the nature of oppression in its ma...

When she was a child, Renae and a boy named Patrick were friends. They shared secret adventures. They shared secret hiding places. But they never told each other about the secret worlds hidden inside their houses. Their sharing stopped one fall afternoon when Patrick walked home from school and opened his front door to find something terrible had happened while he was gone. Sixteen years later, Renae’s father dies suddenly. Staring at his casket in the funeral home, she feels a release, a...

"WE WERE DELINQUENTS, ADDICTS, MENTAL CASES, ORPHANS AND KIDS FROM BROKEN HOMES."Fifteen-year-old Kate Steiner is not sure why she is suddenly boarding at an East Coast school for troubled kids, though there is evidence that her lawyer parents are having marital problems. It is the mid-1970's, and at the progressive school where she has landed, Kate is initiated into a stratified society inhabited by kids who fell through the cracks.Kate must grapple with m...

The true life story of two little girls: Deena, age 4 and Starla, age 5, who become the sexual objects of a deranged stepfather and his sons and their friends througout their childhood and their teenage years. The story follows the girls until they are finally able to move away from home and escape the vile attention of the sexual perverts. The story also examines the effects on the two females as they become adults and have to face society. Written in the jargon that the two women used, t...