Buying on Time Again
Antanas Sileika
About
“A moving and entertaining collection of short stories… that has the unified feel and trajectory of a novel.” (Quill & Quire)
Narrated by the middle child of an East European family who fled to a Toronto suburb after the war, Antanas Sileika’s esteemed collection could be about any Canadian family in the ’50s and ’60s — if they had an outhouse on their suburban lot and lived underground while plotting revenge on their English-speaking neighbours. Together, these touching, hilarious stories make up a powerful chronicle of a place and a time, a close-knit community, and most of all, a family: three boys, a long-suffering mother, and a strangely lovable pipe-smoking, English-mangling father.
First published in 1997, when it was a finalist for the Leacock Medal for Humour and the Toronto Book Award, Buying on Time has become a favourite of Canadian readers and a staple of this country’s immigrant fiction. Now updated and featuring a previously uncollected story, Buying on Time Again is sure to move and delight a whole new generation.
Praise for the First Edition
“Funny, discerning, sharply observed... Reading [these stories] is as easy as breathing.”
— The Montreal Gazette
"Welds humour, tragedy, and personal embarrassments we all live through in a colourful and memorable way."
— The Globe and Mail
Antanas Sileika
Antanas Sileika is the author of six works of fiction and two personal histories, including most recently the novel Some Unfinished Business. The first edition of Buying on Time was nominated for the City of Toronto Book Award and the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour, and his novel Provisionally Yours has been adapted for both film and television. Beyond writing fiction, Sileika worked as a journalist and taught for many years at Humber College, eventually becoming director of the Humber School for Writers. He is now retired and lives in Toronto.
Purchase
Buying on Time Again is available for pre-order through your local bookstore and Amazon.
Details
Published by Stonehewer Books, September 2025
304 Pages • Paperback • 5.5” x 8.5”