Heather O’Neill’s The Capital of Dreams has been published against the backdrop of ongoing wars in Ukraine and Palestine and I could not help but read the novel with those conflicts in mind. At work, we’re struggling with an influx to our city of refugees and asylum-seekers as an added layer of consideration in my reading. Sofia’s story is a magical one, and reviewers will all remark upon the talking goose, dangerous woods and other fairy tale elements that define O’Neill’s telling of this displaced person story, but the immediate relevance to distinctly non-magical current events is obvious. I’ve given The Capital of Dreams a 5/5 partly because it’s a driving, creative, funny and heartbreaking story, partly for the brilliance with which it’s written. I’ve made mention in a recent review of another Canadian author’s struggle to write dialog that’s not stilted or too expository. O’Neill’s writing is never a hurdle, every word thoughtful. There’s a lot in the novel on which I’m missing out – the relationship between Sofia and her mother may not be as viscerally felt by readers who aren’t daughters or moms, but there is just enough description of Sofia’s inner life to help us with the gist.

O’Neill is probably Canada’s best author. She apparently can’t miss.