Anne Baldo’s One Day, Hard and Clear is a novel of narrative gestalt: people, characters who’re more than how they see one another. Whether we’re talking about Sami, a layered, complex young woman from Windsor, or True, her one-time boyfriend who strives to become more than it’s given him to be, Mrs. Baldo’s novel is a story which breathes in all the right places. It’s a book of exquisite, living, sincere detail which feels less like words in a book and more like a secret confided between childhood friends over a hot drink ... Mrs. Baldo is, in my opinion, a quiet virtuoso of Canadian literature.
Chris Fash, author of Heroine
In One Day, Hard and Clear, Anne Baldo offers a world in which hearts pound to Hole basslines and brilliant girls are dimmed by damaged boys. This book is a raw and heartfelt exploration of the secret, idiosyncratic rituals of female friendship and the lifelong grasp of first loves.
Susan Sanford Blades, author of Fake It So Real
In One Day, Hard and Clear, Anne Baldo offers a world in which hearts pound to Hole basslines and brilliant girls are dimmed by damaged boys. This book is a raw and heartfelt exploration of the secret, idiosyncratic rituals of female friendship and the lifelong grasp of first loves.
Susan Sanford Blades, author of Fake It So Real
One Day, Hard and Clear is a story which breathes in all the right places. It’s a book of exquisite, living, sincere detail which feels less like words in a book and more like a secret confided between childhood friends over a hot drink ... Anne Baldo is, in my opinion, a quiet virtuoso of Canadian literature.
Chris Fash, author of Heroine
Anne Baldo takes us back to an era that's not so much rose-tinted as spray-tanned — a time of car-crash TV and ruthless aggression. Baldo shows us love (or what passes for it) in spray paint aliens, shared lip gloss, MySpace pages, and flip-phone texts. This novel is for anyone who's ever loved a fixer-upper and admired the flaws in what's deeply flawed. We've all known a True. Few of us have ever been so blessed as to have a Sami in our lives.
Jamie Kitts, Managing Editor of Qwerty Magazine