Short-listed for the 2004 Commonwealth Writers Prize Best Book Award, Caribbean and Canada Region
A man of innate taste and discrimination, Edward has become an art dealer and collector of fine antiques and paintings. During his first six idyllic years he was the centre and focus of his mother’s existence. Betrayals and unhappiness in subsequent years have led him to form almost fetishistic attachments to beautiful objects, as a substitute for the human relationships that have invariably failed him.
Now in his late forties, on a holiday in Sicily, Edward falls deeply in love with a young English-Italian artist, but he has not yet learned that there is a difference between loving and possessing.

Helen McLean was a Toronto author and artist. She wrote the memoirs Sketching from Memory (1994) and Details from a Larger Canvas (2001), a collection of essays, Just Looking (2008), and two novels, Of All the Summers (1998), and Significant Things (2003), which was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Prize, Canada & Caribbean division. Her book reviews, essays and commentaries have appeared in many publications including The Albertan, The Globe and Mail, Brick, National Post, Quill & Quire, Arts and Letters Daily, Books in Canada, Ars Medica, and the Literary Review of Canada. From the late 60s to early 90s, her paintings appeared in solo exhibitions in Calgary, Toronto, Ottawa, Peterborough, and Montreal, and found their way into many private and public collections, including that of the Bank of Canada in Ottawa. Her portrait of Margaret Laurence hangs in the Margaret Laurence Home in Neepawa, Manitoba.

Helen McLean's profile page

• Short-listed, Commonwealth Writers Prize Best Book Award, Caribbean and Canada Region

McLean's familiarity with art, her skill in depicting human flaws and foibles, her talent for creating realistic dialogue, her ability to tell a story, and her vivid prose all make Significant Things a rewarding reading experience.

Canadian Book Review Annual

McLean has given us a romance, complete with wonderful settings, gorgeous objects and unrequited love.

Globe and Mail

a sympathetic and thought-provoking story.

Hamilton Spectator

This is a finely wrought, mature first novel with some significant things to say about beauty and life.

Quill and Quire

Helen McLean builds a deep story of loneliness, separation, and an appreciation of beauty.

Uptown Magazine (Winnipeg, MB)