Diana

In the tradition of erotic confession (with a catch), Smith's pornographic novel explores female desire. The unnamed narrator -- gorgeous, sophisticated, bored, underemployed -- embarks on a series of intense urban encounters in an unnamed city. Her desire is limitless: passionate, playful, intense, humorous. Diana is a literary experiment to arouse and to paint a sexual portrait of a city.

"Russell Smith is not Canada's greatest writer. A formidable cohort of older authors, preeminently Alice Munro and Mavis Gallant, will have to retire from competition before Smith has a shot at that title. But for more than a decade he has been, for me at least, Canada's most fascinating writer, the author whose new books and stories I most eagerly anticipate, whose fiction I approach with a hopeful curiosity grounded in the fact that his early novels gave me a great deal of pleasure and each new volume, whether successful or not, shows a strenuous effort to expand his literary range."—Jeet Heer, Canadian Notes and Queries "It's unrelentingly smutty, but it's also a valuable reflection on sexuality in our lives and the importance we place on it, and what we can gain from being comfortable in our own skin."—Nom De Plume Press

Russell Smith: Russell Smith is the author of seven works of fiction. A well-know journalist and cultural commentator, he has been a CBC radio host and remains a Globe & Mail columnist. He lives and writes in Toronto.