'The Wig-Maker asks the reader to lean in and listen. It asks the world to fall silent in order that we may hear the intimate whispers between the lines. There are two voices in this book: one whose story goes in search of its music; the other who has to make, of the cries, the very first notes of the song. The work of repair does not deny the original wound. In fact, it cannot happen without it. A fealty to the truth creates a kind of shimmer. Impossible to miss that fitful, tremulous light in what can only be called a work of heart-breaking brilliance.' — Eve Joseph, Griffin Prize winner
Janet Gallant, the wig-maker, is the mother of two grown daughters. After thirty years in Calgary where she worked as an office administrator, most recently in the renewable energy sector, she relocated to Lake Country, BC, where she works as a wig-maker and consultant for women with alopecia. After her relocation to Lake Country, Gallant and Thesen, neighbours at first, became friends after spending an evening together waiting to know if they would be evacuated because of a wildfire in the area. Gallant wanted to tell her story, Thesen wanted to hear it. Gallant insisted she wasn't a writer; Thesen is an established Canadian poet and editor. Thus began what has turned out to be this tale.
Sharon Thesen is the author of a dozen books of poetry, a three-time Governor-General's Award finalist, editor of two editions of The New Long Poem Anthology, and a Professor Emerita of Creative Writing at UBC's Okanagan campus.
