Set in Paris, an offbeat and sweet novel about family, loss and recovery, and the magic of memory.

When Mira takes a trip to Paris with her nephew, Bernard, she expects to ride bicycles through the picturesque streets and admire the parks and courtyards. But the trip takes a different turn when the two travellers try to rescue an injured pigeon from the sidewalk, and their journey becomes one of addressing the losses that define their lives.

Mira is recently divorced and facing a childless (or is it child-free?) future; Bernard has lost his first love and is grappling with his responsibility in the relationship's demise. Both are living in the shadows of war, immigration, and family disconnection as they prepare to travel on to Croatia, the country Mira left behind during the Yugoslav Wars.

But for now: Paris. Mira and Bernard move through a city that feels both familiar and strange -- this is not merely the Paris of postcards, but a Paris of dubious one-star hotels and immigrants and labourers and taxi drivers and Eiffel Tower trinket vendors. And yet it's still a city that possesses an undeniable magic, where one might glimpse intriguing strangers or stumble upon past lovers.

Thoughtful and witty, The Harvesters is infused with subtle beauty and the magic of memory.

Jasmine Odor was born in Croatia and immigrated to Canada in 1993. She currently lives in Edmonton, where she teaches English and writing at Concordia University of Edmonton, and is at work on a novel. Her fiction and reviews have appeared in many Canadian magazines and anthologies, including The New Quarterly, The Malahat Review, Eighteen Bridges, PRISM international, and The Journey Prize Stories. In 2014, her story “His” won the Howard O’Hagan Award for Short Story, and silver at the Alberta Magazine Awards.

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"The city of Paris is almost the protagonist of this charming, whimsical, yet layered novel about memory, the past, and possible, imagined futures. . . . A tantalizing, evocative novel about the complexity and mystery of a human life and consciousness, about human journeys across time and place, and a vivid portrait of the wondering, wandering Mira."

Dawn Promislow

"Told with great tenderness, The Harvesters is a nostalgic meditation on the relentless human desire for love and comfort. . . . In confident, lyrical prose, Jasmina Odor contrasts the openheartedness of youth with the careful gathering and calcification of the self that comes with age—astonishing beauty with order—and asks: what do we owe to our loved ones and to ourselves? Like an old friend, this quietly intelligent novel will continue to sift through you long after you’ve closed its covers."

Susan Sanford Blades