Doubles - by Nora Gold (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Doubles takes place in 1968 in an institution for troubled youth, and is told from the perspective of a brilliant, spunky, 12-year-old girl who is obsessed with math. Engagingly written and often funny, this novella explores how a sensitive young teenager changes over a six-month period from a polite, quiet "good girl" into a delinquent. Although set in the past, Doubles has direct relevance to today, with our recently heightened awareness of the harsh reality in some of our residential institutions during that era (including for Indigenous children, but not only).

Review Quotes

"Besides exploring the inner mindscape of a brilliant pre-teenager, this novella points out the damage a neglectful and indifferent staff can do to a child's psyche." --Donald H. Harrison, San Diego Jewish World

Nora Gold rises to new heights with her sixth book, Doubles. This novella is superficially simple but actually quite complex. The writing is beautiful. Serious ideas are expressed in this short but complicated book. Only an author of Nora Gold's skill and experience could have pulled off this tour de force. Brava.

This novella is fantastic: well-written, great pacing and tension, with a sharp and unwittingly witty narrator. The ending is perfect and, in a way, redemptive and hopeful. An amazing book.

Doubles, Nora Gold's elegant novella about a girl's descent into sheer loneliness, has something of Mordecai Richler's merciless wit, and also of Cynthia Ozick's playfully somber storytelling. But most of all, Doubles reads like the work of an original literary voice--a voice endowed with tenderness, compassion, political memory, and clarity of moral vision. Nora Gold's fiction keeps breaking one's heart as it lives on in the reader's memory.

Nora Gold's Doubles is a stunning novella about a twelve-year-old girl placed in an institution in 1968 after the death of her mother. Written with beautiful prose and assured deftness, Doubles is a powerful meditation on loss, as well as a breathtaking elegy for all children who are dependent for their well-being on a profoundly flawed child welfare system. Heartbreaking, gorgeous, and quietly devastating, Doubles is a tour de force.

About the Author

Dr. Nora Gold is the prize-winning author of five books and the recipient of multiple awards, including a Canadian Jewish Literary Award, a Vine Canadian Jewish Book Award, and a Canada Council translation grant. Her writing has been praised by Cynthia Ozick, Alice Munro, and Publishers Weekly, and has received international acclaim, including from the New York Times Wirecutter, Los Angeles Review of Books, and Hadassah Magazine. A former professor, Gold is also the founder and editor of the prestigious literary journal Jewish Fiction (www.jewishfiction.com), which has published 650 stories originally written in 23 languages. She's appeared on podcasts in Canada, USA, Spain, India, and Australia, and has over 100,000 followers on LinkedIn. noragold.com