The Chronicles of Paisley • Corners
Cheryl's debut novel launched in 2023 Canadian nurse Kick Cavendish has always wanted to make a difference, and she's hoping her new post as Paisley • Corners’ new public health nurse will help her do just that. The rural Ontario hamlet instantly enamored Kick, who had also dreamed of living on an animal rescue farm. She soon discovers Paisley • Corners is as curious of a place as it is special. A community where the dot in its name is explicitly intentional, and its citizens are meddlesome and sometimes misunderstood but deeply caring despite their quirks and foibles. In The Chronicles of Paisley • Corners, the author draws from her expertise as a public health nurse, a role she compares to the wind: rarely seen, yet a presence that’s felt. With gentle nods to social issues and research around real historical events, an array of stories that focus on the wants, wounds, and secrets of the village residents will have readers rooting out loud for their favourite character. Much of the book is seen through Kick’s observant eyes, from witnessing the trauma associated with being an outcast to discovering the lengths people will go to shroud a secret. The links she sees between her rescue barn and her nursing practice – like beauty from ugliness or hope from neglect – gives us pause to contemplate the true meaning of belonging. The comings and goings of this friendly and compassionate public health nurse provide a window into endearing rural characters who just want to matter. We all have a story and a context. We all crave connection. We all come from somewhere. And, in Paisley • Corners we can find “home”. van-Daalen-Smith creates a kaleidoscopic view of human connection in rural community life and public health nursing practice. She impeccably knits a narrative of how and why history, context, and relationships matter. |
ReviewsThe heart of The Chronicles Paisley • Corners |
FICTION | Historical Small Town & Rural, Canadiana
162 pages | B & W Paperback: 978-1-03-916289-1 Hardcover: 978-1-03-916290-7 This gentle novel shines a spotlight on a Public Health Nurses' care for the people in a small rural community. The stories of the residents of Paisley • Corners are told with humour, warmth, and empathy and remind us of heart-warming relationships experienced in our own small communities. "van Daalen-Smith, an Ontario-based nurse, has crafted an engrossing narrative that conjures a world that combines the folksy appeal of Jan Karon’s Mitford books with the nursing perspective and advocacy found in Jenny Worth’s The Midwife (2009), the basis of a PBS series. Van Daalen-Smith is particularly deft at capturing the angst of the tale’s older characters and the town’s political dynamics and moments of heartwarming charity. This astute novel could be a springboard for a series..." — Kirkus Reviews |