Winners and Losers

Darlene Madott writes stories for grown-ups: astute, piercing, and elegant. The professional life of Francesca, a successful yet reluctant lawyer, is the thread that links the stories in Winners and Losers. But Madott gives us much more than a look behind-the-scenes; she explores loss, humiliation, deception, and betrayal, as well as accomplishment, triumph, and the intensity of mother-love. Legal concepts evolve into metaphors that illuminate unexpected connections and new depths of meaning. So many of these subtle shifts left me breathless in admiration. These short stories reminded me of why I love the genre. They need to be read and reread.

—Caterina Edwards (Author of Finding Rosa and The Sicilian Wife)

This collection is Darlene Madott’s voice at its richest and wisest. The genesis of the material is her life at the bar. Family litigation is about good people doing bad things, not always intentionally and not even always with knowledge. Madott has toiled, clear-eyed and observant, in the vineyards of matrimonial discontent for several decades. Captains of industry, widows and orphans, the naïve and the scoundrelly – she has been their champion, and she has seen the darkest places of the heart. These stories explore those dark places and the transformative power of adversity, for good and bad. These stories are also about the pull of blood, the sinew of old love, and about courage and healing. For those who labour at the law, there will be many “I have been there” moments. For those who don’t, this collection gives a front row seat onto the field of battle.

—Wailan Low (Superior Court Judge, Ontario)

There are lessons here, about what matters and what lasts, but they are not tacked on at the end of the story, they emerge slowly and arrive as our own discoveries about what it means to be human, in this time, in this place. 

—George Amabile, (award-winning poet)

Each story chimes with a grace note. Never has the genre of legal drama weaved gender, culture, heritage, despair and the mysteries of the soul. Great insight and just beautiful writing. 

—Jerry Ciccoritti, (Film Director "The Many Trials of One Jane Doe")

I loved Darlene Madott’s passion and insight. Only someone who has spent a lifetime in the legal trenches could write stories and characters so original and compelling.

—Bernard Zukerman, (producer of CBC’s reboot of Street Legal)

Mailing and pitching widely to reviewers and media across Canada.

Readings in Toronto and GTA.

Pitching to literary festivals across Canada.