A gritty tragi-comic fairy tale of sexual obsession and longing, based in equal parts on the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice and the spaghetti westerns of Sergio Leone, Once Upon A Time In West Toronto is the story of outsiders reinventing themselves in Toronto’s immigrant neighbourhoods from the 1970s to the present. It follows the adventures of Ida, an Italian proxy bride who came to Canada married a man she’d never met, only to run off with his son; her lover, the brilliant ditch digger, Marcello; Bum Bum, a virtuous thief; and various hustlers, forgers and whores. A companion book to Terri Favro’s award-winning novella, The Proxy Bride, the book uses historical events in Italy and Canada to create a fast-paced and entertaining read that is both heartrending and hilarious.

Terri Favro has been a winner and a shortlisted finalist in numerous literary competitions, including the CBC Creative Non-fiction Prize. Her work has appeared in numerous anthologies including Clockwork Canada, a Canadian Steampunk story collection. In 2014, she won the Accenti Magazine Award for short fiction, awarded at Montreal's Blue Metropolis Literary Festival. She is the author of an award-winning novella, The Proxy Bride, and the recent novel, Sputnik's Daughter. Her stories draw on her background in the Niagara region as the youngest child of an Italian family that loved science fiction, good wine, gadgetry, comic books, hot rods, daredevils and dark humour. Visit her blog at terrifavro.ca. She lives in Toronto.

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