After twen­ty years Max Binder is still in love with his fiery wife, Mag­gie, and is deter­mined to get her the per­fect for­ti­eth birth­day gift. But Max’s sin­gu­lar desire ― to make his wife hap­py ― leads to an unex­pect­ed event that changes the course of his family’s life and touch­es the peo­ple who make up their west­ern prairie city.

Set over the course of a sin­gle year, Once More With Feel­ing tells the sto­ry of a com­mu­ni­ty through inter­sect­ing moments and inter­con­nect­ed lives. The colour­ful cit­i­zens who make up this city ― bisect­ed by rail­way lines and rivers, con­nect­ed by boule­vards and back alleys ― are marked by trans­for­ma­tion, upheaval, and loss: the work­er at a down­town soup kitchen who rec­og­nizes a kin­dred spir­it amongst the home­less; the aging sis­ters who every­where see the fleet­ing ghosts of two miss­ing neigh­bour­hood chil­dren; a com­mu­nal voice of moth­ers anx­ious for the future of their chil­dren in the dis­com­fit­ing world they inhab­it ― this place of mem­o­ry, amne­sia, long­ing, and belonging.

Fea­tur­ing a cast of eclec­tic char­ac­ters, Once More With Feel­ing is about a com­mu­ni­ty, about a fam­i­ly, and about the way time makes fond fools of us all. Award-win­ning author Méi­ra Cook has craft­ed a nov­el that is at once fun­ny, poignant, and yes, full of feeling.

Read Méi­ra’s Vis­it­ing Scribe posts