In The Woman Downstairs, eloquence joins intimately with an attentive and hungry eye. Julie Bruck explores the accidents and acquaintances of life, its small coincidences and occurrences, its unexpected meetings. With a passionate distance, Bruck blends the outside observer's cool embrace with a desire to know intensely life's eccentric smallnesses, to gentle the beautiful out of the mundane. By turns witty and thoughtful, Bruck's writing is always graceful, always a delight.

Julie Bruck is the author of two previous books, both with Brick: The End of Travel (1999), and The Woman Downstairs (1993). Her recent work has appeared in The New Yorker, Ploughshares, and The Walrus, among other publications. A Montreal native, she lives in San Francisco with her husband and daughter.

Julie Bruck's profile page

"There is a keen intelligence in this collection which drives it beyond the visual to the metaphysical ... startling images which lead toward new and fresh insights."--Nathalie Cooke, The Montreal Gazette

"Bruck maps the intersection of our exterior and interior worlds with a sharp eye and a kind hand ... full of wise and vivid phrases ... This is an inviting and elegant first book that should win Julie Bruck many attentive readers."--Marlene Cookshaw, Books in Canada

"Her book opens up with one of those home-run poems that you just have to stare at as it goes over the bleachers."--The Globe and Mail