Diamond Snow

From an innovator of autofiction comes a meditation on grief, care, Buddhism, and artmaking.

’This is a story. It is a story about someone accompanying another to the last gate.’

Years ago, Kristjana Gunnars took her husband back to his home in Oslo to die. Through the dark, cold days, she tends to his needs as she feels her own self disintegrating. Later, as she looks back to this slow departure of the man she loved, she weaves together threads from her own life, reflections on the thoughts of Gautama Buddha, discussions of Renaissance art, and considerations of contemporary artists.

Engaging with thinkers as varied as Ingmar Bergman and Jacques Derrida, Henry David Thoreau, and Ursula K. Le Guin, Gunnars -- one of the earliest practitioners of ＂autofiction＂ -- crafts a new kind of hybrid text, with elements of memoir, lyrical essay, Buddhist teachings, poetics, art theory, and meditation.

The Silence of Falling Snow is a deep dive into grief, the way we circle around it, dipping in and out of the pain, finding comfort in art and philosophy and religion where we can. It’s an intellectual cabaret, a Buddhist primer, and a pointillist portrait of grief - above all, it’s the consoling and invigorating reflection we need in this moment.

Kristjana Gunnars was born in Iceland and has lived in Canada since 1969. She served as Professor of English and Film Studies at the University of Alberta, and as Guest Professor at the University of Trier in Germany and the University of Iceland. She lived on the Sunshine Coast of B.C. for twenty years while pursuing a career in the arts (painting), as well as writing. She is the author of numerous books (see websites kristjanagunnars.com and kristjanagunnarswritings.com for details). Her latest books are The Scent of Light (Coach House, Toronto) and Ruins of the Heart (Angelico, New York). She has published a number of chapbooks, the latest being 112th Street Notebook (akinoga, Baltimore) and At Home in the Mountains (Junction, Toronto). Her work has appeared in numerous anthologies and journals in Canada, the U.S., and Europe.