Praise for Instructions for the Drowning "To read work like Heighton's knowing that we won't get more of it . inspires fury in all directions . Every story in this collection has 'it,' whatever Heighton decided 'it' would be: pacing that thrills; fragile love and blind hate; descriptions you can smell and taste and hear." -- New York Times "Heighton, who died last year at 60, draws on our most vulnerable moments in this moving collection, full of understated tension and exacting detail. The characters feel both recognizable and one-of-a-kind." -- New York Times "These stories, by a Canadian novelist, poet, and musician who died last year, peer keenly into the penumbra surrounding death." -- New Yorker "To create so many small worlds and characters that feel so real and populate is an act of transcendence. To do it well is to offer a gift.

In Instructions , the late Steven Heighton has managed both, and the gift is ours." -- Globe and Mail "As these stories demonstrate, human life is a means of exploration and celebration, threaded through with darkness and loss. In the midst of death, Heighton seems to say, we are in life: it should be savoured." -- Toronto Star "As a poet and later as fiction writer Steven Heighton had this stunning range of voice in his stories. He would go anywhere. He always surprised you. His death as a still young writer is a tragedy and a great loss. He was a writer who grew so much with each book.

You could always witness it happening." --Michael Ondaatje.