No Crystal Stair

First published in 1997 and then sadly out of print, No Crystal Stair is an absorbing story of Montreal in the 1940s. Raising her three daughters alone, Marion discovers she can only find gainful employment if she passes as white. Set in Little Burgundy against the backdrop of an exciting cosmopolitan jazz scene—home of Oscar Peterson, Oliver Jones, and Rockhead's Paradise—and the tense years of World War II, No Crystal Stair is both a tender story and an indictment of Canada's "soft" racism. In 2005, No Crystal Stair was chosen for that year's Canada Reads and was defended by Olympic fencer Sherraine MacKay.