Quietly, Loving Everyone
“A striking debut collection by one of Montreal’s brightest young writers.
Quietly, Loving Everyone, Curtis John McRae’s debut collection of stories, assembles a meditative and often profound cycle of portraits pulled from everyday Canadian life. A young boy raises James Dean from the dead, only to find out the cult icon is not the playmate he’d hoped for. A university student riddled with ulcers silently spirals after being diagnosed with an autoimmune disease. A young girl takes a road trip with her older sister to Cape Cod, and years later reconstructs the tragic circumstances behind what she remembers. A couple goes on a date at an old porn theatre that is the last remaining vestige of a neighbourhood that has moved on. McRae plays witness to characters at those crucial beginnings or ends of relationships, with lovers, friends, family, and most importantly themselves.”
“Best Canadian Regional Books of 2025,” Indigo
Blurbs
“A remarkable debut collection of uncommonly thoughtful, engaging, originally conceived, finely nuanced and masterfully executed stories. Curtis John McRae is the real thing.”
–Mikhail Iossel, Love Like Water, Love Like Fire
“This is work with a light touch and a deep spirit, brisk and clear as one of Montreal’s coldest and most beautiful days.”
–Sean Michaels, Giller Prize-winning author of Us Conductors
“A rare collection of stories both carefully built and deeply felt. McRae holds up a sincere, bewildered light for his characters as they grieve the inadequacy of their emotional inheritance and yearn for the adult wisdom that was supposed to guide them through this quickly diminishing world.”
–Paige Cooper, Giller-nominated author of Zolitude
Reviews
“Love, From a Distance” by Emma Dollery, The Montreal Review of Books
“Curtis John McRae’s Quietly, Loving Everyone” by Elena Sénéchal-Becker, The/temz/Review
“Cold, Cold World” by Noah Ciubotaru, Literary Review of Canada
“Quietly, Loving Everyone” by Alexa MacKie, Maisonneuve