Short Candles is a novel about possibility, choice and acceptance and is
remarkable for its insights into human nature. Opening in the 1960s, it
spans some forty years in the life of Suzanne Cardinal, who has the
giftor bears the burdenof foresight. While she becomes a visionary to
some people in her home town, to her family she is the difficult child
who was unable to warn them of an impending death. But Suzanne has
little control over the manifestation of her gift. She speaks only when
she has a vision and ends by hurting both those she warns and those she
does not warn. Suzanne grows up confused, with her mental health in
question, as she careens through her youth obsessed with Marc Bolan and
the British band T.Rex. Early in the new century, she faces a decision
that is the culmination of her internal struggle with freedom and
responsibility. In the end it is her understanding of neither, but of
love, that guides her.