The author Renée D. Bondy discusses her debut novel [non]disclosure (Second Story Press, 2024), with Joseph Planta.

[non]disclosure by Renée D. Bondy (Second Story Press, 2024). Click to buy this book from Amazon.ca: [non]disclosur

Text of the introduction by Joseph Planta:

I am Planta: On the Line, in Vancouver, British Columbia, at TheCommentary.ca.

I started reading a novel recently [non]disclosure. It’s an engaging, well-plotted read. The book opens with a young girl whose family’s life is quite involved in their Catholic church. As the story continues, she is abused by her parish priest. She doesn’t tell anybody for a long time, but when she does, it’s because she’s read in the paper that the priest involved was in the news because he was accused of other abuses. She tells her parents, who tell the Archdiocese. As she goes into adulthood, we can see how this abuse affects her. And as she finds herself working in an underground hospice for men dying from the still-taboo AIDS epidemic of the 1980s, she comes to realise how much damage the silence enveloping her life has wrought. The book’s author, Renée D. Bondy joins me now to talk about the book, the impetus to write it, and the voice she gives her central character, and more. She taught Women’s and Gender Studies at the University of Windsor, and her writing has appeared in Herizons, Bitch, Bearings Online, and the Humber Literary Review. She is a graduate of the Humber School for Writers. This new novel is published by Second Story Press. She joined me two weeks ago from her home in Chatham, Ontario. Please welcome to the Planta: On the Line program, Renée Bondy; Dr. Bondy, good morning.

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