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(published in early 2011 in an anthology in support of PEN Canada’s work, Finding the Words)

A famous writer wrote the last bit of the title you’ve just read and I’ve always wanted to quote him. When I first discovered the correspondence between Flaubert and Turgenev fifteen years ago, I laughed aloud at several lines. Every year or two, as the age-gap closes between myself and the writers, I flip through the book and find more to laugh about.