When I Was Young and In My Prime

2006 TRILLIUM BOOK AWARD NOMINEE & NATIONAL BESTSELLER
"A deeply humane, deeply human book."
"- Michael Crummey"
"Moving, funny, full of hard truths."
"- Jim Bartley, The Globe and Mail"
What''s left of us when we''re gone? In "When I Was Young and In My Prime," a young woman watches her grandparents begin to decline. As she sorts through the couple''s belongings, she reflects on the untold stories and unsung bonds that make up our lives. Meanwhile, modern urban life places strains on her own marriage and on her sense of what, ultimately, we owe each other.
Weaving together voices, diary entries, poems, conversations and lists, "When I Was Young and In My Prime" cuts to the heart of our search for intimacy and family, for what makes life meaningful and love real. The result is a smart, moving novel about personal and cultural decline, dignity and work, the urban and the rural, the old and the new, and the search for something ageless.

Alayna Munce grew up in Huntsville, Ontario, and has spent most of her adulthood in the Parkdale neighbourhood of Toronto, where she spends her time writing and working in bars and community centres. Her work has appeared in various Canadian literary journals and has three times won prizes in Grain Magazine''s annual Short Grain Contest. In 2003 she won second prize in the CBC Literary Awards'' travel writing category. In 2004 she was featured in the anthology Breathing Fire 2: Canada''s New Poets.