• Little Fortress

Little Fortress

by Laisha Rosnau

October 1, 2019 | ISBN 978-1-928088-99-8 | 320 Pages

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In this captivating and intricate novel Laisha Rosnau introduces us to three women, each of whom is storied enough to have their own novel and who, together, make for an unforgettable tale. Based on the true story of the Caetanis, Italian nobility driven out of their home by the rise in fascism who chose exile in Vernon, BC, Rosnau brings to life Ofelia Caetani, her daughter Sveva Caetani and their personal secretary, Miss Juul. Miss Juul is the voice of the novel, a diminutive Danish woman who enters into employment with the Caetani family in Italy before the birth of Sveva,… Read more

Advance Praise

“Little Fortress is a sublime novel that asks what happens when you rebel against the narrow strictures of your life. When Miss Inger-Marie Jüül rides away from her family’s farm, her story spirals through time, through two world wars, ranging from lonely Danish lighthouses to Cairo, from Italian villas to Okanagan orchards. This is a haunting, sweeping story, both mournful and stitched with a lilt of hope.”
– Eden Robinson, author of Son of a Trickster and Trickster Drift

“Little Fortress lives and breathes. Based on real people, it builds a deep and convincing world of its own. Rosnau’s portraits of three women, especially her voicing of Miss Jüül, are indelible. An unforgettable novel.”
– Alix Hawley, author of All True Not a Lie in It and My Name Is a Knife

“There’s something wonderfully subversive about Laisha Rosnau’s new novel, Little Fortress. Her women, driven by passion and pain, live on their own terms in a world that would reduce them to eccentric curiosities when they are so much more. Rosnau does a brilliant job of resurrecting and reimagining this piece of Canadian history.”
– Annabel Lyon, author of The Golden Mean and The Sweet Girl

Excerpt

Read an excerpt from Little Fortress

Events with Laisha Rosnau

    • Where in Canada: Little Fortress (Laisha Rosnau, All Lit Up, 26/02/2020)
      Laisha discusses Okanagan, the setting of the novel, as a place that offers both freedom and a feeling of confinement.
    • The Chat with Laisha Rosnau (Trevor Corkum, 49th Shelf, 08/01/2020)
      "What would lead a mother, her daughter, and their paid companion into exile, seemingly of their own volition, for a quarter of a century?"
    • E163 with LAISHA ROSNAU (Jamie Tennant, Get Lit, 02/01/2020)
      An interview with Laisha about her novel.
    • In Conversation with "Little Fortress" Author Laisha Rosnau (Eleanor Hoskins, SAD Magazine, 19/10/2019)
      "I thought about the realities of not only immigration but travel, employment and independence for women during that era. Theirs was a privileged sense of cultural displacement, perhaps. They didn't feel they belonged in either the world they immigrated to, or the one they left behind."

  • Laisha Rosnau is the author of the best-selling novel, The Sudden Weight of Snow (McClelland & Stewart), and four critically acclaimed, award-winning collections of poetry. Her work has been nominated for several awards, including the Amazon/Books in Canada First Novel Award, the Pat Lowther Award, three times for the CBC Poetry Prize, and has won the Blue Heron Poetry Prize and the Acorn-Plantos Poetry Award. Rosnau's work has been published across Canada, in the US, UK and Australia. She teaches in UBC Okanagan's Creative Writing Program. Rosnau lives in Coldstream, BC, where she and her family are resident caretakers of Bishop Wild Bird Sanctuary. Visit her website at laisharosnau.com.