The Harvesters by Jasmina Odor

The Harvesters, Jasmina Odor’s luminous debut novel, depicts Mira and her nephew Bernard’s brief visit to Paris through Mira’s inquiring, meditative perspective.

Mira and Bernard are both suffering the effects of recent losses. In her forties, childless and recently divorced from David, Mira’s past is very much on her mind. The purpose of the journey is to visit Mira’s mother—Bernard’s grandmother—in Croatia, which Mira fled during the war, eventually settling in Canada. Mira’s father has died, and her mother recently suffered a stroke, so Mira’s level of concern is elevated. The three-night Paris stopover was Bernard’s idea, a chance for him to revisit the site of a trip he took the previous year with girlfriend Aisha while he broods over their subsequent breakup and his role in what happened. But Mira also has a hidden motive: visiting Paris gives her a chance to perhaps reconnect with Mirko, a boyfriend from the years prior to her marriage, with whom she lost contact but has now tracked down via the internet.

But Mira also has a hidden motive: visiting Paris gives her a chance to perhaps reconnect with Mirko, a boyfriend from the years prior to her marriage, with whom she lost contact but has now tracked down via the internet.

Mira has a high opinion of her nephew and regards him as a gentle and painfully self-aware young man whose heart is easily broken. Indeed, their initial foray into the Paris streets hits a detour when they come across an injured pigeon, which Bernard insists they must bring to the hotel and nurse back to health. To Mira, Bernard seems to be at a loose end, undecided about his future and still wistfully in love with Aisha (constantly checking his phone to see if his ex is responding to his texts). But Mira is also perplexed by Bernard’s behaviour, when he seeks an intimate connection with every young woman he meets, including a hotel maid and Alice, the daughter of an American family staying at the same hotel.

For her own part, Mira seems stuck in the hollow space between her new and old lives, puzzling over a divorce she’s not sure she even wanted, wondering where David is and what he’s doing, and distracted by concerns regarding her mother’s health and welfare.

For her own part, Mira seems stuck in the hollow space between her new and old lives, puzzling over a divorce she’s not sure she even wanted, wondering where David is and what he’s doing, and distracted by concerns regarding her mother’s health and welfare.

With limpid, arresting prose, Jasmina Odor captures the restlessness of two characters nostalgic for a safe, settled past, wanting more but wary of moving forward into a future that holds so many unknowns. Like her previous book, the brilliant story collection You Can’t Stay Here (2017), this is a sophisticated, moving and psychologically probing work brimming with insightful observations on loss, transition, and the thorny—sometimes baffling—intricacies of the human heart. With The Harvesters, her first novel, Jasmina Odor proves herself to be a writer of the first order whose fiction is worth seeking out and is sure to reward repeated readings.

With The Harvesters, her first novel, Jasmina Odor proves herself to be a writer of the first order whose fiction is worth seeking out and is sure to reward repeated readings.

Jasmina Odor is a Croatian-born Canadian writer and teacher of writing. Her fiction has been widely published in magazines and anthologies, including The New Quarterly, The Malahat Review, and Eighteen Bridges, and her short story collection, You Can’t Stay Here, was published in 2017. Her work has won the Howard O’Hagan Award and a Silver Alberta Magazine Award, and has been nominated for the Journey Prize and the CBC Short Story Prize, among others. She lives in Edmonton.

Publisher: Freehand Books (May 1, 2024)
Hardcover 5.5″ x 5″ | 269 pages
ISBN: 9781990601613

Ian Colford

Website

Ian Colford’s short fiction has appeared in many literary publications, in print and online. His work has been shortlisted for the Thomas H. Raddall Atlantic Fiction Award, the Journey Prize, the Danuta Gleed Literary Award, and others. His latest novel, The Confessions of Joseph Blanchard, was the winner of the 2022 Guernica Prize and was published by Guernica Editions in 2023. He lives in Halifax.