In midst of truth

After her brother died, Canadian novelist Helen Humphreys dreamt that he came to her asking what had happened in his absence. She tells him that, “I stand in the chaos and swirl of my life” but also “in the midst of truth”. Life without her brother is a new, empty reality, but the memoir which results from it is a surprisingly breezy read where poignancy mixes freely with laughter and delight.

Part elegy, part celebration, and structurally more like a diary than anything else, True Story follows the author and her brother through the final weeks of the latter’s life. Martin Humphreys was a talented pianist and composer diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2009. Wound around this fixed point are the author’s reflections on her current life as well as vivid memories of her and her brother “growing up as artists together”.