Do you believe in angels? When Xaviere is tasked with transcribing taped interviews her deceased friend Daphne left to her in her will, she begins to piece together the story of the photographer Irene Guernsey, a moderately well-known but elusive photographer Daphne was interviewing. Irenes mysterious images captivate Xaviere as they had Daphne. Irene had never given interviews or talked about her work publicly, but near the end of her life, she reveals the magic hidden in plain sight in her mysterious and ethereal photographs and her attempt to capture angel wings on film. And once the angels appear, the reader is taken on a journey that spans decades and changes the lives of multiple women along the way. EVERYTHING AFFECTS EVERYONE, is a novel about listening, about how women speak to one another, and about the power of the question.
Shawna Lemay is the author of the novel, Rumi and the Red Handbag, which has made Harpers Bazaars #THELIST (must-reads for Fall 2015), the Most Anticipated list on the popular Canadian book website, 49th Shelf, and has been selected for Maria Shrivers fall reading club. Nathalie Atkinson chose Rumi and the Red Handbag for Falls Must-Read Fashion Books in the Globe and Mail. She has also written six books of poetry, a book of essays, and an experimental novel titled, Hive, which is about the possibility of the existence of a woman art forger. All the God-Sized Fruit, her first book, won the Stephan G. Stephansson Award and the Gerald Lampert Memorial Award. Calm Things: Essays was shortlisted for the Wilfred Eggleston Award for Non-Fiction. She has an M.A. in English from the University of Alberta.