A Way to Be Happy

Longlisted for the 2024 Giller Prize

Short stories about disparate characters consider what it means to find happiness.

On New Year’s Eve, a pair of addicts robs a string of high-end parties in order to fund their own recovery. A recently separated woman relocates to a small northern town, where she receives a life-changing visitation, and a Russian hitman, suffering from a mysterious lung ailment, retrieves long-buried memories of his past. In the nineteenth century, a disparate group of women coalesce in the attempt to aid a young girl in her escape from a hospital for the insane. These are but some of the remarkable characters who populate these stories, all of them grappling with conflicts ranging from mundane to extraordinary. Caroline Adderson’s A Way to Be Happy considers what it means to find happiness—and how often it comes through the grace of others.

Caroline Adderson is the author of five novels (A Russian Sister, Ellen in Pieces, The Sky Is Falling, Sitting Practice, and A History of Forgetting), two previous collections of short stories (Pleased to Meet You and Bad Imaginings), as well as many books for young readers. Her award nominations include the Sunday Times EFG Private Bank Short Story Award, the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, two Commonwealth Writers’ Prizes, the Governor General’s Literary Award, the Rogers’ Trust Fiction Prize, and the Scotiabank Giller Prize longlist. The recipient of three BC Book Prizes, three CBC Literary Awards, and the Marian Engel Award for mid-career achievement, Caroline lives and writes in Vancouver.

ISBN: 9781771966221
Format: Paperback
Pages: 240
Publisher: Biblioasis
Published: September 10, 2024

Praise for A Way to Be Happy "Adderson . . . is a deft, masterful storyteller whose literary fiction surely deserves more attention."
—Kirkus Reviews (starred) "Though her writing is incisive, emotionally astute, slyly funny and award-winning, it still feels like Adderson hasn’t quite gotten her due as one of this country’s best short-story writers."
—Emily Donaldson, Globe and Mail "For each story, Adderson expertly develops a detailed setting . . . [and] the author carefully constructs vivid characters from every walk of life. Each one of them making their way to some undetermined fate."
—Bill Paul, The BC Review "Caroline Adderson's stories are delicious: they zip and bubble, and a number are touched with tenderness."
—Townsend Walker, New York Journal of Books "A Way to Be Happy is immensely refreshing, as it not only explores the uniqueness but also showcases the unpredictability of the everyday in a manner only a few writers manage to do."
—Saurabh Sharma, The New Indian Express "Adderson’s prose is straightforward but doesn’t flatline; every word choice feels intentional. When she goes into detail, it is perfectly placed to highlight her characters’ idiosyncrasies, making the reader empathize with their struggles."
—Isobel Bray, The Tribune "The characters in these stories from veteran of the form Caroline Adderson range from thieving addicts to a Russian hit man to a middle-aged man facing a routine colonoscopy. Through these varied characters and their disparate conflicts, Adderson explores happiness—how we find it and what it means when we do."
—Quill & Quire "A superb and unique collection. Intricate, compassionate, complex, its every sentence carefully built, tested, and polished, each story draws the reader into the life of a character hurtling or meandering towards the consequences of their own choices and to the story’s necessary conclusion. They will by turn flood you with unexpected sympathy, lighten your mood, or leave you with a puzzle you can’t quite solve. No one else writes short fiction the way Caroline Adderson does, and there are only eight stories in the book. The way to be happiest is to savour each one."
—Kathy Page, Atwood Gibson Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize-winning author of Dear Evelyn "Caroline Adderson's voice is as vivid as ever in this exciting new collection, and her characters are unfailingly mesmerizing—distinctive, unpredictable, somehow like everyone yet no one you've ever met before."
—Lynn Coady, author of Watching You Without Me "Caroline Adderson builds terrific suspense from her characters’ lonely, off-centre lives. Each story in A Way to Be Happy is its own mysterious world, shaped by her outstanding powers of imagination and sympathy."
—Elizabeth Hay, author of Snow Road Station "Caroline Adderson is one of Canada's best short story writers. A brilliant stylist, her inventive sentences are the trademark of a literary pro."
—Susan Swan, author of the upcoming memoir Big Girls Don’t Cry Praise for Caroline Adderson “All of Adderson’s characters are rounded and all have utility, not simply as plot devices but as part of a striving, suffering whole.”
—New York Times Book Review “Caroline Adderson treats the domestic drama with elegance and wit, and what she has to say about her characters and their circumstances is often profound.”
—Meg Wolitzer, author of The Female Persuasion “Adderson excels at portraying life in all its glorious, devastating, unpredictable messiness.”
—Toronto Star “Adderson achieves a remarkable effect with her prose. Its clarity is so overwhelming that it becomes intoxicating.”
—Globe and Mail “A prose style as elegant and controlled as a swallow dive . . . No one could ever accuse Adderson of timidity when it comes to subject.”
—The Independent “Arresting . . . [Adderson] writes with a rare understanding of human frailty.”
—The Times (London)