A Student of Weather Paperback - 2001

First line

Some nights she still goes over every detail, beginning with the weather and proceeding to the drop of blood on the old sheet - her quick wish for a man with straight white teeth and red lips - and then his arrival.

Media reviews

“There has never been a sister, lover, or daughter like Elizabeth Hay’s haunted Norma Joyce. A Student of Weather is as evocative as Jane Campion’s The Piano in its erotic obsessions and relentless quest for love and art. A sensual treasure.”
–Linda Svendsen

“Hay exposes the beauty simmering in the heart of harsh settings with an evocative grace that brings to mind Annie Proulx.…I was so moved by Norma Joyce’s painful, haunting journey to wisdom – and Elizabeth Hay’s telling of it – that I wanted to go back to the beginning and start again.”
–The Washington Post

“This is a book to break (and warm) your heart over and over.…Hay’s language is precise, economical and evocative. In A Student of Weather, every word counts.”
–Ottawa Citizen

“In stunningly precise and suggestive prose, Hay tells a story of obsession and rivalry.…Hay’s yearning, suffering women have the lit-from-within emotional intensity of D.H. Lawrence’s.…Brilliant.”
–Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“A brilliant exploration of the universal themes of pain and betrayal and survival, rendered with such a sure, deft touch that Hay seems to be discovering new literary territory…”
–Quill & Quire (starred review)

“Be warned! You won’t be able to set this seductive book down until you’ve finished – sadder, wiser, and gladder to be alive.”
–Isabel Huggan

“In elegant and exacting prose, Elizabeth Hay lays bare the perilous power of love and all that we prefer to keep hidden about ourselves. Unsparing and unsettling, this exceptional first novel shines.”
–Diane Schoemperlen

“A Student of Weather is complicated, compelling, and beautifully told.”
–Maclean’s

“Hay’s contemplative yet dramatic ballad to beauty, autonomy, and creativity is akin to the work of Alice Hoffman and Isabel Allende…enthralling.…”
–Booklist (starred review)

“More than any other forecast, A Student of Weather reads the signs that mark the blessings and curses of persistence.…”
–Ottawa Citizen

“Hay’s book both captivates and astonishes. Read A Student of Weather and rejoice.”
–London Free Press

“Compelling and highly original.…”
–Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Bad weather erupts and the result is the creation of an unforgettable fictional world.…This is a book to savour, to ponder and to read a second and third time.…A Student of Weather is first-class: heartfelt, with a sureness of touch and beauty of expression rare in fiction today.”
–Montreal Gazette

“This is a wise book, artful and impressively intelligent.…”
–Globe and Mail

“Hay has created a character who burrows into your mind and stays there. Norma Joyce is not larger than life, she is life, and she comes to us fully formed in this rich, compelling, satisfying novel.”
–National Post

“A work of rare beauty and integrity. Hay has created a heroine, Norma Joyce Hardy, who will linger in the mind long after the last chapter ends.”
–Ottawa X Press

“Elizabeth Hay has intelligence coming out of her fingertips – integrity, insight, and wonder in every paragraph of her writing.…She connects. She stirs and provokes.”
–Timothy Findley