What They Don't Know – Selected Fiction

What They Don't Know
280 Pages
ISBN 978-1-941066-07-2

The 18 stories in What They Don’t Know probe the lies and secrets, the "fictions" in the lives of parents and children, siblings, Germans and Jews, bewildered adolescents, and elderly lovers.

Here is what reviewers say:

“The actors in these beautiful, often sad stories carry with them complex histories of desire and pain, often longing for what they can't or shouldn't have. You've met them, fathers and mothers, daughters, sisters, uncles, lovers, presented here with humor and dignity, with a keen and dispassionate eye, reminiscent of another great Canadian storyteller. Rosen's cast will surprise you, instant by instant.”

– Daniel Coshnear, Occupy & Other Love Stories

"I gorged on the stories in What They Don't Know and was sad when there weren't any more. I was never sure where the next story would take me--the Hialeah Racetrack, a decrepit houseboat on Biscayne Bay, a retirement village known as Harmony Villa, or a campground in Northern California. At least five of the stories featured Nora, the daughter of a Toronto grocer, and although each one stood alone, they produced strange and wonderful echoes when taken together. One of my favorite stories, "Another Monster," reminded me that growing up can be more about loneliness than love. They all reminded me of the power of short fiction in the hands of a master."

  • Susan Bono, What Have We Here

Jo-Anne Rosen

About Jo-Anne Rosen (Petaluma, California Author)

Jo-Anne Rosen

Jo-Anne Rosen is an author of short fiction. Her stories have been published in print and online journals in Canada and the U.S.

Selected stories from a mini-collection, The Luckiest Man Alive, were performed at the New Short Fiction Series in Hollywood, California, on October 12, 2014. In June 2016, Off the Page Reader's Theater performed her story “Grungy's Leg” in Sebastapol and Cotati, California.

Jo-Anne is self-employed as a book and web designer and small press publisher. She established Wordrunner Publishing Services in the 80s, a print chapbook service in the 90s, and the literary zine Wordrunner eChapbooks in 2008. In 2007 she was awarded a two-week writing residency at Soapstone in Oregon. She is presently co-editor of the Sonoma County Literary Update.