Fiction: In the Hands of Anubis by Ann Eriksson

Despite an epic canvas and a delicate touch that sears the heart, there’s something sweetly naive about In the Hands of Anubis (Brindle & Glass) a novel that looks at love and unhappiness in entirely new ways.

Trevor Wallace is a tractor salesman from Calgary on his way to Africa on business. In a German airport he has a chance encounter with a woman in her 70s, and they end up traveling together to Cairo. Constance is traveling the world with the ashes of her three husbands in plastic containers -- their names carefully lettered on the lids -- in her suitcase.

The pair end up stuck in Cairo, just long enough to tour the pyramids. Trevor returns home to Calgary not long after, but she’s touched him somehow -- or those ancient structures have -- emotionally, spiritually: it’s all the same. Only his world, his life are different.

In the Hands of Anubis is a lovely little book. It seems at times to touch on all the humor, the sadness, the joy of the human spirit.