The editors at Quill and Quire have chosen Willem de Kooning’s Paintbrush as one of their books of the year for 2016:

Kerry Lee Powell’s debut story collection is one of the year’s indisputable powerhouses. Powell’s stories, which focus on vulnerable characters battling anomie, indifference, and misunderstanding, are distinguished by sinewy, concentrated writing packed with meaning and implication. Others agree: Powell’s book was the only one to be nominated for all three of the Scotiabank Giller Prize, the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize, and the Governor General’s Literary Award for English-language fiction.