Two words written anonymously in a guest book set off a chain of events that led a longtime Munro’s Books employee to quit her job, disillusioned by her literary hero and her former employer.
Two months ago, Justina Elias would have described her job at Munro’s in Victoria as a fairy tale. She admired the life and works of store co-founder Alice Munro, and gladly gave “starry-eyed” interviews about the literary icon as the store’s head of fiction and social media manager.
After Munro died in May at age 92, the store put out a book for customers to share their memories of the author, and prepared for an event to celebrate Munro’s life, which Elias was slated to moderate.
That’s when the fairy tale began to unravel.
Someone had written “child abuser” in the guest book.
Store president Jessica Walker explained to Elias in an email obtained by CBC News that this was related to the sexual abuse of Munro’s daughter, Andrea Robin Skinner, at the …