Background
Pick was born in 1975 in Toronto, Ontario and grew up in Kitchener. During her teenage years, she discovered that her father"s Czechoslovakian family was originally Jewish (he had been raised a Christian).
( A realistic portrayal of the world of urban twenty-some...)
A realistic portrayal of the world of urban twenty-somethings, The Sweet Edge tells the story of a young couple who decide to go their own way for the summer in order to figure out their relationship. Ellen chooses to work in a trendy Toronto art gallery, while Adam takes a solo canoe trip into the Arctic tundra. The two characters alternate chapters and points-of-view: the reader frets with Ellen through an increasingly sweltering city, then journeys inside the young man’s head as he goes dangerously deep into wilderness. Their impressions of the world around them and their partnership gradually change, until their worlds and their changed worldviews suddenly and dangerously collide. Pick seamlessly weaves two distinct voices and two distinct settings into a single, sophisticated whole, making The Sweet Edge a beautifully written novel about the delicate balance between love and change.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1551927837/?tag=2022091-20
("Deftlystructured and . . . seamless." —Globe and Mail (T...)
"Deftlystructured and . . . seamless." —Globe and Mail (Toronto) "Anuanced and layered portrait of betrayal. . . . The strength of Far to Golies in Pick's ability to show precisely why one person could turn on another,how a single word spoken on impulse could have devastating results." —MontrealGazette Alison Pick, acclaimed author of The Sweet Edge, delivers the moving and suspenseful story of an affluentJewish family in Czechoslovakia at the onset of World War II, and the governesswho forever alters their future when she seeks shelter in their midst.Interwoven with a present-day narrative revealing each character’s fates after thewar, Far to Go is an emotionallyvivid, masterfully wrought narrative that the Montreal Gazette calls, "an intriguing experiment in the art ofstorytelling."
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0062034626/?tag=2022091-20
( Profound, honest, and masterfully written—Between Gods ...)
Profound, honest, and masterfully written—Between Gods forces us to reexamine our beliefs and the extent to which they define us. Growing up in a tight-knit Christian family, Alison Pick went to church regularly. But as a teenager, she discovered a remarkable family secret: her paternal grandparents fled from the Czech Republic at the start of WWII because they were Jewish. Tragically, other family members who hesitated to emigrate were sent to Auschwitz. Haunted by the Holocaust, Alison's grandparents established themselves in their new lives as Christians. Not even Alison's father knew of his parents' past until he visited the Jewish cemetery in Prague as an adult. This atmosphere of shame and secrecy haunted Alison's journey into adulthood. Drowning in a sense of emptiness, she eventually came to realize that her true path forward lay in reclaiming her history and identity as a Jew, and she began attending conversion classes. But the process was far from easy as old wounds were opened, and all of her relationships were tested.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0062362461/?tag=2022091-20
Pick was born in 1975 in Toronto, Ontario and grew up in Kitchener. During her teenage years, she discovered that her father"s Czechoslovakian family was originally Jewish (he had been raised a Christian).
In 1999, she graduated from the University of Guelph with a Bachelor of Arts in psychology.
She has published two novels, a memoir, and two collections of poetry. Her first book was written while living in Saskatchewan at a Benedictine monastery, then at a cattle ranch, and then in Saskatoon. Pick is teaching at the Iceland Writers Retreat in Reykjavik, Iceland spring of 2015.
2002 - Bronwen Wallace Memorial Award for (for the title section of Question & Answer).
( A realistic portrayal of the world of urban twenty-some...)
( Profound, honest, and masterfully written—Between Gods ...)
("Deftlystructured and . . . seamless." —Globe and Mail (T...)