The Heart Begins Here

By: Jacqueline Dumas

Narrated by: Michelle C. Smith

Length: 6 hrs and 15 mins

Publisher's Summary

The Heart Begins Here is the story of the ever-optimistic, earnest Sara Requier and her disintegrating seven-year relationship with the cynical Wanda Wysoka. Along with her relationship struggles, Sara must contend with the drastic changes in the book industry that threaten her feminist bookstore and a mother who refuses to accept her daughter’s lesbianism. Then, just as Wanda decides to leave Sara, Wanda’s new young lover, Cindy, is murdered. 

The story takes place in a western Canadian city in 2001 - much of it in Sara’s bookstore, Common Reader Books - in the shadow of the disturbing political climate that followed the 9/11 attacks in the US. This is a transitional point in the Canadian book industry: the proliferation of big box stores, the expansion of the Internet - and Sara is caught up in the concomitant changes in her community. 

The book explores themes of love and loss, of the lingering effects of a dysfunctional childhood, of misogyny, of personal and societal homophobia, and especially the challenge of integrating the personal with the political.

©2018 Jacqueline Dumas (P)2020 ECW Press

Critic Reviews

“This is a novel about beginnings, changes, endings - of relationships, of business ventures - and about how the knowledge we gain as we progress (often unwillingly) through these cycles is essential to our ability to move forward. By turns poignant and laugh-out-loud funny, Jacqueline Dumas’s new novel deftly keeps us turning pages, as much for the pleasure of reading her writing as from our keen interest in discovering what will happen next.” (Mary W. Walters, author of The Woman Upstairs, Rits Just Wants to Be Thin, and Cool)

“The Heart Begins Here is a delightful read that made me both think and laugh out loud.” (Caterina Edwards, author of The Sicilian Wife and Finding Rosa)

“This book is packed with humor and incisive social commentary. It takes up the issues of misogyny, homophobia, and loss. Though a brief novel, it is packed with much that is wise and warm.” (Donna Decker, author of Dancing in Red Shoes Will Kill You) 

Don’t touch this book

Boring, bad narration and strange ideas teaching that all is evil!
Heterosexuality is bad? Why?
Every thing is bad? Why?
It is a bad book