Vryenhoek
2017 Longlist

Ledger of the Open Hand

artwork-image

ABOUT
THE BOOK

Ledger of the Open Hand looks at the intimate power of money and emotional debt through the eyes of a woman trying to grab hold of her own life. Beholden to a shrewd friend and burdened by family obligations and guilt, Meriel-Claire (MC) finally stumbles into what she’s been missing. She falls in love and finds her calling as a debt counsellor in the midst of a national financial crisis. But balancing the books for strangers is easier than reconciling her own complicated relationships. Regrets and deficits accumulate until MC must decide what she owes to those she loves. With humour and insight, Ledger explores giving, taking, and our tendency to treat love as a balance sheet.

ABOUT
THE AUTHOR Leslie
Vryenhoek

Leslie is the acclaimed author of Scrabble Lessons-stories about the desire that punctuates our most ordinary days-and Gulf, a collection of poetry that explores longing and belonging in a transient world.

Leslie is also the founding director of Piper’s Firth: Writing at Kilmory, an intensive writing retreat held every fall on Newfoundland’s spectacular Burin Peninsula.

Leslie is the acclaimed author of Scrabble Lessons-stories about the desire that punctuates our most ordinary days-and Gulf, a collection of poetry that explores longing and belonging in a transient world.

Leslie is also the founding director of Piper’s Firth: Writing at Kilmory, an intensive writing retreat held every fall on Newfoundland’s spectacular Burin Peninsula.

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NOMINATING LIBRARY COMMENTS

Meriel-Claire juggles love, emotional debt, and the power of money as she struggles to decide what she owes to those she loves. She falls in love and finds her niche in a debt counselling service during a national financial crisis. Old friends, her family and her new love have her trying to budget her time, money and love – love is not a balance sheet with neatly defined incomes and expenditures.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Date published
15/05/2015
Publisher
Breakwater Books

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