“What is the soul?” asks Rumi, the poet. “If I could taste one sip of an answer, I could break out of this prison for drunks.”
Rumi and the Red Handbag follows the lives of Shaya and Ingrid-Simone, working together one winter at a second-hand clothing shop. Theodora’s Fine Consignment Clothing shop becomes a small world where Shaya, an academic who abandoned studying the secrets of women writers, finds in Ingrid-Simone a reason to begin writing again, on scraps of paper and post-its. Fresh, unique and intelligent, Rumi and The Red Handbag is a journey to the Museum of Bags and Purses in Amsterdam, a journey to find Rumi, the soul, and the secret hidden in a red handbag.
- available in Edmonton at Audreys Books
Palimpsest Press
mcnalleyrobinson.com
amazon.ca
amazon.com
Chapters/Indigo
Book Club Questions (PDF)
Features, Reviews, Awards
Finalist, 2016 Alberta Readers' Choice Award
"Edmonton author dives deep into purses and philosophy,"by Brent Wittmeier, Edmonton Journal, Friday January 9, 2016
Rumi and the Red Handbag, reviewed by Merna Summers, Alberta Views, January/February 2016 (print edition)
Mentions
- Edmonton Public Library has added Rumi and the Red Handbag to their EPL Great Stuff Recommends List: Best of 2015 Books - Canadian Fiction
- Nathalie Atkinson chooses Rumi and the Red Handbag for Fall's Must-Read Fashion Books in the Globe and Mail
- Kerry Clare has included Rumi and the Red Handbag on The Pickle Me This 2015 Best Books of the Year list.
- review by Kerry Clare on Pickle Me This
- Michelle Chahine has selected Rumi and the Red Handbag for the Fall Reading Club on Maria Shriver's website
- Harper’s Bazaar, #TheList: 15 Books for Fall (2015)
- 49th Shelf, Most Anticipated: Our Fall 2015 Fiction Preview