The Girl from Dream City - (Regina Collection) by Linda Leith (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Vivid stories from a Canadian literary icon, who shares a life spread across continents and immersed in books

It's the life that many young women dream of: education in some of Europe's most beautiful cities before becoming a novelist, essayist, translator and literary curator.

But the start of Linda Leith's journey is anything but idyllic. The daughter of a glamorous mother and a charming left-wing doctor, she is never told of her father's psychiatric breakdown or his subsequent shock therapy for what was then called manic depression.

As this secret festers, Leith's father uproots the family to various European cities as he reinvents himself as a corporate executive, eventually moving across the Atlantic to Montreal.

It's there, in her first year of university, that Leith is inspired by Madame de Staël: a writer and salonnière, banished from Paris by Napoleon himself. With none of Staël's advantages--no wealth, no social status, no château on Lake Geneva--Leith can scarcely imagine a salon, but she is drawn to Paris, and dreams of becoming a writer.

This dream fuels her education in London, her marriage and writing in Budapest, and--finally--her journey back to Montreal where she meets a community of writers and readers who she works with to transform the city's literary scene.

As Leith publishes, translates, and curates, she also comes to terms with her troubled father and the secrets of her childhood.

A luscious read, this book will rivet readers of Jill Ker Conway's The Road from Coorain and Tara Westover's Educated, or anyone who has dreamed of building a cultural life.

Review Quotes

"As this compelling memoir demonstrates, Leith built herself not simply a literary life - as a novelist, non-fiction writer and editor of a literary magazine - but also a dazzling multilingual and multinational salon in the form of Montreal's Blue Metropolis literary festival which, under her 15-year tenure, grew to be a world-class event."--Will Aitken, author of Anitigone Undone

"If you liked memoirs by Diana Athill, Alexandra Fuller, and Madame de Staël, you'll love Linda Leith's new book."--Mary Soderstrom, author of Concrete and Frenemy Nations

"We, in Canada, are fortunate to have such a person as Linda Leith active in the Montreal and CanLit literary scene. Her small, but vibrant publishing company produces a select amount of titles (fiction and non-fiction) highlighting Quebec's English writers. Her very personal and highly enjoyable life essay The Girl From Dream City will doubtless be an influential book for those seeking a literary life, either as a writer or editor or publisher. Or all three."-- "The Miramichi Reader"

"Whenever possible, Leith transformed painful, even traumatic experiences into strengths. It's a gift..."-- "Montreal Review of Books"

About the Author

Born in Northern Ireland, Linda Leith attended schools in London, Basel, Belfast, Paris, and Montreal, graduating from the University of London, which granted her a PhD on the work of Samuel Beckett when she was twenty-four. A novelist, essayist, literary translator, founder of Blue Metropolis International Literary Festival and Linda Leith Publishing, and recipient of the Order of Canada, she lives in Montreal.