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Heather O'Neill is a novelist, short-story writer and essayist. Her work includes When We Lost Our Heads, a #1 national bestseller and a finalist for the Grand Prix du Livre de Montréal, The Lonely Hearts Hotel, which won the Paragraphe Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction and was longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction and CBC's Canada Reads, and Lullabies for Little Criminals, The Girl Who Was Saturday Night, and Daydreams of Angels, which were shortlisted for the Governor General's Literary Award for Fiction, the Orange Prize for Fiction and the Scotiabank Giller Prize two years in a row. O'Neill has also won CBC's Canada Reads and the Danuta Gleed Award. The Capital of Dreams is her most recent novel. Born and raised in Montreal, O'Neill lives there today.
""A haunting fantasy . . . O'Neill masterfully blends moments of whimsy with the grim realities of war, exploring themes of art, loyalty, and the complexities of mother-daughter relationships. The lush prose and fantastical elements draw readers into a magical and heartbreaking world. Like the best fairy tales, the result feels both timeless and painfully relevant."" -- Publishers Weekly (starred review) ""The novel is told in fairy tale cadence and peppered with sophisticated animals, sensitive objects, and the enduring magic of folklore forests; its raw power lies in the way it blends the realities of war with the equally trenchant realities of its child narrator's perspective as she navigates her suddenly irredeemable world . . . . A powerful novel--heartbreaking, magical, and real."" -- Kirkus Reviews (starred review) ""O'Neill presents a dark fairy tale set in a tiny European country, Elysia, which renounces its pantheistic, forest-dwelling ways to build a thriving artistic culture centered in the Capital. . . . . Like the heroines of her favorite folktales, Sofia navigates her own adolescence along with the treacherous landscape, emerging from the woods with a hard-won sense of self. O'Neill's feminist fairy tale will appeal to fans of Kelly Link and Karen Russell, [and] Sofia's coming-of-age fairy tale will [also] resonate with teens."" -- Booklist (starred review) ""A refined but dark fairy tale . . . . A harrowing and all too timely account."" -- The Literary Review of Canada ""The Capital of Dreams is not so much a novel to read but one to live (and dream) in. A dark, wistfully comic fable that's as imaginative as it is poignant. An entire world that only Heather O'Neill could create."" -- Iain Reid, bestselling author of We Spread and Foe ""Magical and brutal, haunting and searing . . . . Against the harsh backdrop of war, O'Neill elegantly tackles intimate, complex questions about maternal devotion, freedom, individuality, creativity, and sexuality."" -- The Quill and Quire (starred review) ""Uncommonly poetic, nuanced and insightful, The Capital of Dreams is a masterpiece of the tangled threads and beating hearts that make us both ordinarily human and extraordinarily magical. I wish every girl could replace her mirror with pages of O'Neill's work, to see herself as a fierce and lusty creature well-placed to weave new worlds. The Capital of Dreams will make you grateful you wandered up a dark path and tumbled down a rabbit hole."" -- Cherie Dimaline, bestselling author of Empire of Wild and VenCo ""Heather O'Neill's The Capital of Dreams is a feminist adventure with all of the darkness of a war novel, the charm of a fairy tale, and the heart of a coming of age story. O'Neill's crystal-clear, aphoristic prose reveals complex themes about freedom, desire, and destiny. I underlined passages with one hand and turned pages with the other, rapt right through the stunning final twist."" -- Maria Adelmann, author of How to Be Eaten ""A new Heather O'Neill novel is always a reason to celebrate!"" -- Book Riot
