Memoirs are my guilty, gossipy pleasure. They don’t offer the worthy, crunchy, authoritative examinations found in non-fiction titles bristling with footnotes. Nor do they have the license of novels to take us flying into imaginary worlds. I think of them as a hybrid, especially after encountering gaps in my own memory. “Remember him?” my husband […]
The Corner Garden
Krueger has perfectly captured the laconic tone of an intelligent teen who can still offer moments of bracing lucidity and keen observation… The Corner Garden is an ambitious book. It starts innocently as a contemporary picaresque journey, then delves into a history lesson and the nature of evil… Jessie Barfoot is a delightful character.
The Globe and Mail
The Corner Garden
By engaging us in two very different lives in a state of transformation, we become engaged in the process of what it means to become an individual, moral human being. It’s a powerful story about human strength and frailty. It touches something deep inside.
The Toronto Star
The Corner Garden
Smart and satisfying.
Smart Books magazine
The Corner Garden
The Corner Garden is about storms and angels (black ones) and history. It is also about friendship and deception, beauty and horror, ad about the difficulty of delineating, in our lives of spinning fragments, between these overlapping realms. The work’s form is as ambiguous as its content. It is a good story about gravely serious matters, but it is also a satire and an ironic diminution of self. It is a novel both hysterically funny and deeply troubling.
Literary Review of Canada
The Corner Garden
Jess’s diary entries are instantly engaging. Although her observation may be adult at times, this is because Jess is an insightful observer of her world. She is a witty, astute teen whose eyes burn deep trough to the truth of the world she examines…. It is voice that works in this novel. Jess is immediately appealing and captivating, and the strong personality of Martha is not easily forgotten.
Books in Canada
Drink the Sky
“Lesley Krueger adds another richly textured canvas to her gallery with her new novel, Drink the Sky. Teeming with the layers of life of a Brazilian rain forest, Drink the Sky is sensual and literate, both microcosm and metaphor. Drink the Sky scrapes away the accretions of civilization to explore questions of social and moral responsibility, revealing human motivation to be at once squalid, beautiful, dangerous, enticing an, like the rain-forest canopy itself, ultimately impenetrable.”
The Globe and Mail
Drink the Sky
“In its satisfying breadth and its consideration of the potential of women’s lives, Drink the Sky recalls the novels of 19th century British women….not once did I feel like putting this book down. Sometimes I had to, of course, but I was always eager to pick it back up again. Krueger’s depiction of Holly’s experience is wise and sincere…But best of all is Krueger’s use of a 19th century women’s literary tradition to structure a 20th century woman’s exploration of marriage, morality and meaning.”
Donna Bailey Nurse, The National Post
Drink the Sky
“In an unusual page-turner which sets North American arrogance against the lurking dangers of an untried, exotic environment, Toronto writer Lesley Krueger challenges modern assumptions….With tight control of her material and a skilful handling of mounting suspense, Krueger turns Drink the Sky into a thriller of admirable precision, an original and provocative novel of ideas…The finished tapestry, exciting, colourful and finely fashioned, makes Drink the Sky a polished second novel from one of the country’s most promising young writers.”
The London Free Press
Drink the Sky
“Like the dark side of the moon, Latin America lies tucked away in the southern hemisphere, the forgotten half of this old new world that we North Americans think we’ve mapped but still fail to understand. In Drink the Sky, Lesley Krueger holds up North Americans’ puritanism and best intentions under the intense light of Rio de Janeiro and the savage brilliance of the Amazon. What she reveals is that we are never completely who we think we are. Rich in sensual and intellectual surprises, her book is a fine, rewarding read.”
Lake Sagaris
Drink the Sky
“When Krueger rackets up the tension, we go with her, hearts in mouths. She has intriguing and serious things to say about human nature and the planet.”
Quill & Quire
Drink the Sky
“A thriller of admirable precision.”
The London Free Press
Time Squared
“Times have changed”. We hear this a lot — and for the most part it’s true, but what if you lived the exact same storyline in different lifetimes? How much would really change? Time Squared (ECW Press) has a clever and original answer. A love story that stays the same over different eras, this book by Lesley Krueger is a unique concept that ties in historical events, world wars, and women’s roles in society…leading to a surprising ending.
Rebecca Eckler
Time Squared
Part sci-fi adventure, and part romantic mystery, Time Squared draws from multiple genres with Krueger’s sure hand to create a story that shimmers with the best of each form. Smart, moving, and richly rendered, it examines two people’s connection…The mystery of why – and who might be behind it all – will keep readers guessing.
OpenBook.ca
Time Squared
This book starts like you’re in a Jane Austen novel and finishes like a Margaret Atwood one…. It is definitely a book that makes you think, particularly about the roles of men and women through history and how times have changed. I love the way the atmosphere changes as the story progresses as you go from one of joviality to a darker and more intense tone. This is a great good book that takes you on a journey like no other through time.
Atomic Books
Time Squared
I’ll dive right in and tell you that the novel, Time Squared by Lesley Krueger, which I’ve loved more than I’ve loved than any book I’ve read in ages, could be billed as Kate Atkinson’s Life After Life meets Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go, if we wanted to underline just how badly you really ought to read it. And oh, you really do.
Kerry Clare
Time Squared
Oh my gosh, this book is excellent. (By) about midway through, I was finding it very hard to put it down. Last night I had to stop reading around page 250, because I had to go to bed, but then I couldn’t sleep, my mind all wrapped up on the narrative and just where the narrative is going. And it’s going somewhere so perfect, a story that cannot possibly just be a cheap gimmick in the end, and it isn’t. Oh the ending, I loved the ending, so absolutely perfect, that last sentence the most extraordinary gift and promise.
Kerry Clare
Time Squared
I was so captivated by this book and the multiple layers and depths the author weaves for us. That sudden shift at the end totally took me by surprise and I was in awe of the author’s creativity. Definitely recommend the audiobook version!
Kailagh Rises, author of Evryn, The Light
Mad Richard
Krueger’s portrait of artists as young men and women is alive with wit and rebellion — an aesthetic vivisection of the young Victorian age.
Globe and Mail
Mad Richard
There is much to ponder in this elegant novel about the potentially catastrophic emotional toll of art, the irrational nature of love, the solitude of heartache and what happens when one life touches another, however briefly.
The Toronto Star
Mad Richard
The knitting together of Charlotte Brontë’s and Richard Dadd’s different trajectories worked like a dream. I was enthralled.
Terry Gilliam
Mad Richard
Screenwriter and novelist Krueger uses her visual artistry to good effect in vividly portraying a squalid London in which talent doesn’t always lead to fame or fortune. Exploring the vibrant cultural awakenings of the Victorian age, Krueger intriguingly populates her scenes with the artistic glitterati of the day . . . An entrancing portrait of artistic minds confounded by the Victorian Age.
Kirkus Reviews
Mad Richard
Krueger’s research is evident in every paragraph: from the use of authentic slang to richly sketched portraits of the lives of the era’s rich and poor, the book confidently transports the reader to another time.
Quill & Quire
Mad Richard
In this remarkable piece of historical fiction, Krueger imaginatively delves into the life of Richard Dadd . . . The two story lines . . . effectively juxtapose Dadd and Brontë, two very different people who travelled in similar circles during the same era and, more importantly, who were both entirely invested in what it means to be an artist. This question anchors the novel, adding depth and dimension to a terrific read.
Publishers Weekly, starred review
Mad Richard
A wonderfully elegant novel that led me back to rereading Jane Eyre and a first time go-around with her other two noted novels, Shirley and Villette, this one enthralled me.
Owen Sound Sun Times
Mad Richard
By portraying artists before and after their most significant achievements, Krueger is able to tease out a moving narrative of fame, beauty and what an artist owes his or her craft.
Shelf Awareness for Readers
Mad Richard
A wonderful read that allows readers to savor moments, thoughts and questions long after the last page is turned.
I am, Indeed
Mad Richard
Fascinating and richly detailed . . . Mad Richard is grippingly told and replete with evocative descriptions.
CNQ
Mad Richard
This is a beautifully written book that succeeds in weaving together the stories of these two very different people, who have in common ambition, a love of art, and an ambivalent feeling about fame. Charlotte’s story is bittersweet and grounded in reality. Richard’s is horrifyingly tragic and surreal. The author does a wonderful job of presenting his descent into madness in a vivid, realistic, and sympathetic way.
Susan Coventry’s blog
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