Sweet Affliction

One of the CBC’s Best Books of the Year.

A pregnancy test is taken at a wedding, a bad diagnosis leads a patient to a surprising outlook, and a civic holiday becomes a dystopian nightmare. By turns caustic, tender, and creepily hilarious, Sweet Affliction reveals the frailties, perversions, and resilience of Anna Leventhal’s cast of city-dwellers. Shiftless youths, a compulsive collector of cigarette butts, and a dying pet rat populate fifteen sharply-observed and darkly funny stories that suck at the marrow of modern life.

“It’s a joy to read.”—The Globe & Mail

"Anna Leventhal [is] one of Montreal’s quietly beloved literary personalities."—Cult MTL

“A subtle yet powerful debut.”—Inaudible

"Sweet Affliction’s reviews have been positive across the board, and rightly so. It’s a collection that reads more like a mid-career statement than a tentative debut."—Montreal Gazette