Set in Ottawa in the 1990s, Garbo Laughs is the quixotic tale of tall, thin Harriet Browning, a woman inflamed by the movies she was deprived of as a child. Bent on seeing everything she has missed, Harriet rapidly becomes so saturated with old movies, seen repeatedly and swallowed whole, that she no longer fits into the real world. Equally addicted are Harriet's three companions-of-the-screen: a boy who loves Frank Sinatra, a girl with Bette Davis eyes, and an earthy sidekick named after Dinah Shore. Breaking in upon this quiet backwater, during the devastating ice storm of 1998, come two refugees from Hollywood, the jaded widow of a famous screenwriter and her movie-expert stepson. They are the embodiment of harsh reality and in their wake come blackouts, arguments, accidents, illness and sudden death. In the end, what chance does real life stand when we can live through the silver screen instead? What hope does real love have when movie love, in all its brief intensity, is the so much more seductive option? In this brilliant and poignant comedy of second-hand desire, movies and movie lovers take the starring roles.

Elizabeth Hay is the author of five books including Small Change and A Student of Weather. Her books have been shortlisted for a number of awards including Canada's two most prestigious The Governor General's Award and the Giller Prize. She recently won the Marian Engel Award for a woman writer in mid-career. She lives in Ottawa.