We grant men a right to solitude. Why can't we do the same for women?

Ivory Frame arrives in Paris at the height of the surrealist movement. She falls in with a set of bohemian artists and begins an intense love affair with a volatile, married Russian painter. But this freedom cannot last forever. When the Second World War comes, she is forced to flee, leaving everything she cares about behind.

Years later, as Ivory compiles her last, greatest work - a vast account of animal languages - she receives unexpected news. She is told that she has a grandchild, despite never having had a child of her own.

Inspired by the life of surrealist artist Leonora Carrington, this is a thrillingly elegant yet raw evocation of a woman clawing her way to a creative life.

About the Author
Heidi Sopinka is the author of The Dictionary of Animal Languages, which was shortlisted for the Kobo Writing Emerging Writer Prize, and longlisted for the Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Prize. A former environment columnist at The Globe and Mail, she is co-founder and co-designer at Horses Atelier. Her writing has won a national magazine award and has appeared in The Paris Review, The Believer, Brick, and Lit Hub, and has been anthologised in Art Essays. She lives in Toronto.

Reviews

'Masterfully written in expressive prose, The Dictionary of Animal Languages is a tale of an artist's life outlining love and loss and the surprises, both good and bad, that were thrown in her path. It is full of keen observations which are almost meditative, perhaps an indication of the artist's ability to appreciate beauty and small details, especially in nature, which give continued meaning to life even when events turn tragic.'

-- Carina Mcnally * Irish Examiner *

'The Dictionary of Animal Languages is such a special book, suffused with an almost painterly intelligence. Sopinka's characters experience the world with an intensity we associate with children and visionaries. Watching them navigate the difficulties of the humdrum and the glamorous both is a distinctive, if unsettling, pleasure.'

-- Rivka Galchen, author of American Innovations and Atmospheric Disturbances

'Not only a dictionary of animal language, but also an atlas of the human heart, Heidi Sopinka's gorgeous debut novel maps the difficult territory between history and memory, love and loss.'

-- Johanna Skibsrud, author of The Sentimentalists

'[T]ransfixing.'

* AnOther Magazine *

'A rich, painterly novel, a space where image and sound and the powers of the written word meet and mingle.'

* Brixton Review of Books *

'With stunning prose, lavish details, deep wisdom, and emotional precision, reading this book is like falling in love - my interest in everything else was lost.'

-- Claire Cameron, author of The Last Neanderthal

'The Dictionary of Animal Languages shifts between past and present, across beautifully-rendered landscapes and soundscapes. In the foreground in sharp focus, an inner world, the story of a woman's life, a life spent in rebellion from society, domesticity, and definition. Sensual and sensory, this is a story about the strength of the human spirit and it is about bodies, desire, and irrevocable loss, told in prose that is fresh, urgent and lyrical. A passionate and compelling debut.'

-- Anna Thomasson, author of A Curious Friendship

'[A] brilliant book.'

* In The Moment *

'[P]atient readers will find, as I did, that a bit of mystery about what exactly happened is just enough bait to keep them going until they've gotten to know Ivory so well that the last third or so of the book is emotionally devastating in the best way. This book is a powerful and brilliantly constructed story about loss, love, and communication of all types.'

-- Annie Smith * Utah Valley University Library, Edelweiss *

'A stunning novel with quiet, prayerful prose to take your breath away. Sopinka flawlessly inhabits the rich inner world of her characters as if she could shed her own skin. Powerful in a soft way, like the static electricity before a storm.'

-- Laura Graveline * Brazos Bookstore, Edelweiss *

'Elements in the book build and shift, weaving together to create a vivid and powerfully human reckoning of a life, of ageing and loss, of a century of conflict, and of the relationship between the natural and the industrial world.'

* Toronto Star *

'The writing is poetic and powerful ... the language is full of imagery and energy, active and fresh. Sopinka has her own grammar, using sentence fragments in moments of urgency.' FIVE STARS

* Tonstant Weader Reviews *

'[M]ade me push past my own expectations of literature.'

-- Nichole Perkins, The 2019 Tournament of Books

'[T]he language of Sopinka's Dictionary ... makes me feel I'm walking through lush dreamscapes from an art museum's walls.'

-- Rion Amilcar Scott, The 2019 Tournament of Books

'[R]ead it in two sittings, and completely enjoyed myself ... the depth to which I could slip into Ivory's point of view, the rhythms of her emotional responses, was a dealmaker for me. And the fact that the story's way of evincing feeling and thought felt more evoked than stated-there was just so much in this novel that held me.'

-- Rosecrans Baldwin, The 2019 Tournament of Books

'Sopinka isn't just a terrific writer, she's a great thinker. Her writing has particular sway and grace when she writes about the natural world.'

-- Christy Heron-Clark, The 2019 Tournament of Books


Awards
Short-listed for Kobo Emerging Writer Prize 2019 (Canada). Long-listed for RSL Ondaatje Prize 2019 (UK).



Book Information
ISBN 9781912854004
Author Heidi Sopinka
Format Paperback
Page Count 320
Imprint Scribe Publications
Publisher Scribe Publications
Dimensions(mm) 198mm * 129mm * 19mm