The Stray and the Strangers

Written by Steven Heighton

Narrated by Frankie Corzo

The fishermen on Lesvos call her Kanella because of her cinnamon color. She’s a scrawny, nervous
stray—intimidated by the harbor cats and the other dogs that compete for handouts on the pier.

One spring day, a dinghy filled with weary, desperate strangers comes to shore. Other boats follow,
crowded with refugees who are homeless and hungry. Kanella knows what that is like, and she follows
them as they are taken to a temporary refugee camp set up in the parking lot of an abandoned nightclub.
There she comes to trust a bearded man—an aid worker. She is given shelter like the refugees, who
line up for food and who sleep on the ground for a few nights before being taken to a much bigger,
permanent camp that the aid workers call Mordor.

Then, one day, a little boy arrives and does not leave like the others. He seems to have no family, and
he sleeps on a cot in the food hut, where Kanella keeps him warm and calm.

But life in a refugee camp is uncertain at best. Where will Kanella and the boy go? Will they ever
find a permanent home?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
• Release date: Sep 29, 2020
• ISBN: 9781705007099

Steven Heighton

STEVEN HEIGHTON (1961-2022)’s most recent books were the novel The Nightingale Won’t Let You Sleep (Hamish Hamilton, 2017), the Governor General’s Literary Award–winning poetry collection The Waking Comes Late (House of Anansi Press, 2016), and the memoir Reaching Mithymna (Biblioasis, 2020), which was a finalist for the Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction. He was also the author of the novel Afterlands, which was published in six countries, was a New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice, and was a “best of year” selection from ten publications in Canada, the U.S., and the U.K. The novel was optioned for film by Pall Grimsson. His other poetry collections include The Ecstasy of Skeptics and The Address Book. His fiction and poetry have been translated into ten languages, have appeared in the London Review of Books, Tin House, Poetry, Brick, the Independent, the Literary Review, and The Walrus Magazine, among others; have been internationally anthologized in Best English Stories, Best American Poetry, The Minerva Book of Stories, and Best American Mystery Stories; and have won the Governor General’s Literary Award for Poetry, the Gerald Lampert Award, the K. M. Hunter Award, the P. K. Page Founders’ Award, the Petra Kenney Prize, the Air Canada Award, and four gold National Magazine Awards. In addition, Heighton was a finalist for the Governor General’s Literary Award, the Trillium Book Award, the Pushcart Prize, the Journey Prize, the Moth Prize, and Britain’s W. H. Smith Award. Heighton was also a fiction reviewer for the New York Times Book Review. He lived in Kingston, Ontario. In 2021, Wolfe Island Records released an album of his songs, The Devil’s Share. To listen, visit www.wolfeislandrecords.com/stevenheighton.