Want fewer ads?

Gail Kathryn Anderson-Dargatz (née Anderson) (born November 14, 1963) is a Canadian novelist.

Anderson-Dargatz was born in Salmon Arm, British Columbia and studied creative writing at the University of Victoria

Her first novel, The Cure for Death by Lightning (1996), was an experimental yet accessible work whose story unfolded partly through narrative and partly through a collection of recipes and household tips belonging to the narrator's mother. It was a Canadian bestseller that year, making Anderson-Dargatz one of the most popular new names in Canadian literature. The novel was nominated for the Giller Prize and was awarded the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize. Her novels are unique, but can be compared on some degree to those of Isabel Allende, Barbara Kingsolver, Alice Munro and Anne Tyle.

Her latest novel, Turtle Valley (2007), is set near Salmon Arm during a forest fire and tells the story of Kat, a woman who faces the challenge of simultaneously caring for her aging parents, young child and ill husband. It was inspired by the 1998 Salmon Arm fire, which the author had to evacuate her parents from. A major focus of the novel is "to give an unflinching portrait of the caregiver, how very hard it is on the caregiver and on all family relationships." Canadian Living : Life : Community : Interview with author Gail Anderson-Dargatz

This author page uses material from the Wikipedia article "Gail Anderson-Dargatz", which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0