Christine Lai's "Landscapes": Reading Some of the 2024 Republic of Consciousness Prize (Canada & USA)
Image from Goodreads After hearing that it was longlisted for the Republic of Consciousness prize, I was looking forward to reading Landscapes by Canadian author Christine Lai, published by Doubleday (Two Dollar Radio). Lai’s story has been called a “country house novel” and although I have no idea what that meant, I felt a pull towards her 2023 publication as my mind conjured images of Oscar Wilde’s infamous play, The Importance of Being Earnest; Tom Stoppard’s play, Arcadia; and even Ann-Marie MacDonald’s play Belle Moral.I initially started reading the physical copy from the library while listening to the audio version (published by Highbridge Company) on Everand (the app formerly known as 'Scribd'). However, the two versions have quite a lot of discrepancies. Based on the first chapter only, I feel that the physical copy has been made to suit North American readers and the audiobook has been made to suit a British audience. Either way, the changes between the two were so va
