Rag Pickers by Blaine Newton

CBC

26-05-2025

A sinister note sewn in the lining of a vintage jacket from a second-hand store compels a young woman to make changes in her life. A brother discovers his dying twin has been burying jars of coins in an attempt to create mystery in a neighbourhood. On his 43rd birthday, a man realizes that the critical events of his life occur in years when his age is a prime number. A woman reconfigures her stick figure on the back window of the family minivan in an act of defiance and reinvention.
Rag Pickers is a collection of eighteen short stories that challenge the essential loneliness of the human condition. Blaine Newton writes with wry humour, deep observation, and an off-kilter perspective, bringing his skill as a playwright to crackling dialogue and polished prose. Well-crafted, heartbreaking, and really, really funny, this is a book for anyone who has ever felt alone.
(From University of Calgary Press)
Blaine Newton is an Edmonton-based award-winning playwright, comedy writer, short-fiction author, actor and occasional engineer. His plays have been produced across western Canada, and his short fiction has been featured in magazines and anthologies, and on CBC and CKUA radio. Rag Pickers is his debut short story collection.