Art of Camouflage

“From military training and the camouflage that protects, to the masks we wear to conceal flaws even to ourselves, Sara Power comes out swinging with a gripping debut with characters caught between ache and outrage. A wildly imaginative and welcome new voice.”

S H E L A G H  R O G E R S founding host and co-creator of The Next Chapter, CBC Radio

“Sara Power’s Art of Camouflage is full of complex characters who make costly miscalculations, and wear masks that reveal more than they hide. They endure and know when to quit; they’re vulnerable and tremble with rage; peacekeepers walking the tightrope of misogyny. Power’s prose is lightning quick, making the dark that follows illumination even darker. Shot through with brilliant images and an elegant fluidity, these stories are striking, subtle, and ultimately spectacular.”

L I S A M O O R E author of This Is How We Love and February

“In this exhilarating debut, Sara Power uses her considerable gifts to illuminate lives touched by the military. Touching, funny, and often absurd, each of these short stories contains a whole world.”

A L I X O H L I N author of We Want What We Want and Dual Citizens

“In Art of Camouflage, Sara Power courageously depicts military life, yet there isn’t a single battlefield in these pages. Instead, Power invites us into the overlooked lives of military wives, discombobulated recruits, and children growing up on bases, for whom every home is temporary and every friendship destined to be severed. Fiercely intelligent, funny and tender, Art of Camouflage is a remarkable debut.”

C A R O L I N E  A D D E R S O N author of A Russian Sister and Ellen in Pieces

Psychologically astute and imaginatively written, The Art of Camouflage approaches life on the periphery of the military with ingenuity and emotional depth. With her gentle and resonant authorial voice, Sara Power guides us through the inner lives of characters who feel lost, adrift, and unmoored. These stories are vulnerable and tender, both unsettling and comforting in the same breath. This collection is about military life, but it’s also about how to go on when the tethers are cut, when you don’t know who you are or where you belong. Throughout each evocative story, Power’s characters struggle to find home within themselves in places far from home. A captivating read and a singular debut. 

J A C L Y N  D E S F O R G E S author of Danger Flower and Hello Nice Man

The women and girls in these stories, most of them connected to Canada’s military, are expected to camouflage their hurts and desires, but Sara Power makes them visible in a deft blend of humour and heartbreak. This collection, written in searing prose, shakes the reader like gunfire and stirs up memories with the assuredness of a mother’s embrace. It’s an exciting debut from a gifted storyteller.

Z I L L A  J O N E S  Journey Prize winning author of The World So Wide (forthcoming)