Gabriella Goliger
Description
Gabriella Goliger's novel, Girl Unwrapped, won the Ottawa Book Award for 2011. Set in Montreal in the 1950s and 60s, it's a coming-of-age story about a girl whose budding lesbian desires clash with the mores of her times and the expectations of her Holocaust scarred parents. Gabriella's first book, Song of Ascent, won the 2001 Upper Canada Writer’s Craft Award. Her latest novel is Eva Salomon's War, which garnered praise from the renowned Canadian authors Joan Thomas and Frances Itani. Gabriella was co-winner of the 1997 Journey Prize for short fiction, was a finalist for this prize in 1995 and won the Prism International award in 1993. She has also been published in a number of journals and anthologies including Best New American Voices 2000 and Contemporary Jewish Writing in Canada. Born in Italy, Gabriella grew up in Montreal and has also lived in Jerusalem, the Eastern Arctic, Victoria, B.C. and Ottawa, her long-time and permanent home. In the 1980s and early 90s, Gabriella was active in Ottawa's GLBT community, as editor of the community newspaper, volunteer on the Gayline and co-founder of the Women's Coming Out Discussion Group. She has been with her partner, Barbara Freeman, since 1981.
Books
Quintet
Study of the novels of Premacanda, 1881-1936 and modern Indic authors.
Girl Unwrapped
A powerful tale of the burdens and blessings of history, the divided self, and the quest to be whole, Girl Unwrapped is a coming-of-age story set in 1960s Montreal. Toni Goldblatt's awakening to taboo desire conflicts with the expectations of her Holocaust-scarred parents and with the conservative mores of her times. Yearning to reinvent herself, she flees to Israel in the wake of the 1967 war, but the Zionist dream doesn't save her; instead, she finds the realities of life in the Middle East more complex than she imagined, and that her quest for normalcy has been thwarted. Only on her return to Montreal, when she discovers kindred spirits in the underground lesbian bar scene, does Toni begin to accept herself and find her own path. Achingly honest, Gabriella Goliger's Girl Unwrapped is a novel about forbidden love, isolation and the search for personal truth despite the stranglehold of family history.