Hanrahan, Catherine 1969(?)-

PERSONAL:

Born c. 1969, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Education: Attends the University of British Columbia.

CAREER:

Writer. Worked as an English teacher and bar hostess in Japan.

WRITINGS:

Lost Girls and Love Hotels (novel), Viking Canada (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 2006.

Contributor to periodicals, including Zoetrope All-Story Extra and Open City.

SIDELIGHTS:

Canadian novelist Catherine Hanrahan has lived and traveled in Europe and Asia, ultimately returning to the Canadian province of British Columbia to earn a master's degree in creative writing. Her first novel, titled Lost Girls and Love Hotels, borrows from her own experiences as an English teacher in Japan. Hanrahan told Danworth Review contributor and fellow novelist Ibi Kaslik about the cultural bubble that many foreigners experience in the country: "I think that no matter how long a westerner stays in Japan—no matter how well they master the language and the cultural niceties—they can never shake the sense that they are on the outside looking in. This feeling of being on the fringe lent itself perfectly to the story I wanted to write." The protagonist struggles not only with the cultural divide and her self-destructive tendencies, but with growing dysfunction in her family at home.

A contributor to Kirkus Reviews described Lost Girls and Love Hotels as an "edgy, hip debut," further noting: "This insider view of high-end Japanese youth culture is wicked and unsparing." An Eye Weekly reviewer called it "smart and stylish" and noted Hanrahan's "breathless prose." The novel was featured on Elle magazine's online "Must Read" list, and a reviewer described the book as "unsettling, darkly humorous, and edgily addictive."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Kirkus Reviews, May 15, 2006, review of Lost Girls and Love Hotels, p. 485.

ONLINE

Danforth Review,http://www.danforthreview.com/ (October 6, 2006), "TDR Interview: Catherine Hanrahan."

Elle.com,http://www.elle.com/ (January 8, 2007), review of Lost Girls and Love Hotels. Eye Weekly,http://www.eyeweekly.com/ (August 3, 2006), "Life in the Renkan."