Anna Camilleri is more than a red dress. The Toronto native is a writer, spoken-word artist, anthologist, and curator who has performed across Canada and the U.S. Camilleri’s I am a red dress is a new memoir-like work that offers an intensely personal depiction of her own life.

The narrative is divided into three sections: “Grandmother,” “Mother,” and “Daughter.” In “Grandmother,” the child narrator Anna expresses her unquestioning adoration of her nonna as she tries to piece together her grandmother’s life story. Nonna immigrated to Canada from Italy soon after marrying an irresponsible man who favours the local tavern over his own family. Through Anna’s naïve and hopeful eyes, we glimpse nonna’s broken heart, which Anna desperately wants to repair until it is “perfectly shaped like a heart on a Valentine’s Day card.”

Yet nothing can be as perfectly packaged as a Valentine’s Day heart, as Anna learns when she discovers the secret of her grandmother’s ultimate betrayal. This dirty family secret has irrevocably damaged three generations of women. Violence, betrayal, and abandonment burn the pages of “Mother” and “Daughter,” as the deep scars of these strong and defiant women are exposed. Nothing is as it seems. Silence is everywhere.

Camilleri breaks this silence, celebrating the power of words and speech. As the narrator says, “I broke the only rule that bound my family together: started with don’t, ended with can’t. I did speak.”

Camilleri’s prose is potent, fresh, and imbued with powerful imagery. Anna’s body “whistles like a kettle” when she kisses her lover. Her favourite teacher inspires her with a voice of “hot caramel, ice, [and] polished silver.” And a dangerous man lurks outside the bedroom door like a hungry wolf. The narrative employs an experimental structure that varies the story’s pace and engages the reader.

I am a red dress is an exorcism of sorts. The narrator strives to rebuild a fractured part of herself by weaving together dreams, memories, imagination, and fact. Throughout this exorcism, her red dress remains a bold constant that symbolizes anger, courage, defiance, love, and empowerment. This lady in red has an important message to share.