Bhat bringing short stories to book club

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This article was published 17/04/2025 (540 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Free Press Book Club and McNally Robinson Booksellers welcome B.C. author Shashi Bhat to the next virtual meeting on Tuesday, April 29 at 7 p.m. to read from and discuss her short-story collection Death by a Thousand Cuts.

In addition to her short-story collection, published in April 2024 by McClelland & Stewart, Bhat is the author of two novels — 2013’s The Family Took Shape and 2021’s The Most Precious Substance on Earth, the latter of which was a finalist for the 2022 Governor General’s Literary Award for fiction.

From first dates to well-entrenched relationships, the nine stories in Death by a Thousand Cuts are in turns heart-wrenching and hilarious as they explore the experiences of women with particularly problematic men. In one story a writer recognizes herself in her ex’s new novel; in another a woman posts on Reddit about her partner’s unwanted advances — a post in which he recognizes himself as the aggressor.

Some of Bhat’s protagonists also struggle with beauty ideals and physical conditions that fall outside their control: a giantess who works in a library; a woman whose hair mysteriously falls out; a mother whose face is burned by hot oil and whose personality changes; and another who is immunocompromised and whose body betrays her as she struggles to establish a relationship. In many of the stories, the pitfalls of the COVID-19 pandemic linger in the background.

Death by a Thousand Cuts made the 12-book long list for the 2024 Giller Prize; more recently, the 41st annual B.C. and Yukon Book Prizes named the collection as a finalist in the Ethel Wilson Prize for Fiction and for the Roderick Haig-Brown Regional Prize, which recognizes a book that “contributes most to the enjoyment and understanding of British Columbia and Yukon.”

Bhat has also won the Writers’ Trust McClelland & Stewart Journey Prize for her work in short fiction, and has been shortlisted for a National Magazine Award and the RBC Bronwen Wallace Award for Emerging Writers.

Shashi Bhat will join Free Press literary editor Ben Sigurdson, McNally Robinson Booksellers general manager Angela Torgerson and Free Press audience engagement manager Erin Lebar. Bhat will read from Death by a Thousand Cuts, discuss the book and field questions from viewers and readers.

Copies of Death by a Thousand Cuts are available to purchase at McNally Robinson Booksellers; there’s no cost to join the book club or virtual discussion. Video of the meeting will be available for replay on the Free Press YouTube channel following the event.

To join the Free Press Book Club and for more information on current and future book picks, visit Book Club.