Love Bites

2018 | Fiction & Poetry

“Both delicate and tough” — Joan Barfoot, Man Booker longlisted author of Critical Injuries

“Lyrical, moving and unexpected” — Erinna Mettler, author of Fifteen Minutes

Love Bites is a collection of 13 stories that trace the paths of foreigners, drifters and eccentrics linked by their need for acknowledgment and belonging: how do they cope on unfamiliar ground? Themes of isolation, loss, and a desire for connection recur when strangers reach out to other strangers for stability.

A mysterious older woman and an alienated foreigner, lost on a crowded London street, bond in their search for home. A single woman consults a soothsayer about family problems before he lures her into his own conflict. A former life model and her overgrown son prey on a tourist in a Parisian garden. Interconnected scenes in Montreal, Paris and Toronto are linked by bizarre accidents and those who witness them.

Love Bites reveals a kaleidoscope of human experience wherein the reader witnesses everyday exiles.

Elena Kaufman (Author)