What happens when you finally listen—not to the noise of the world, but to the quiet hum beneath it?
When life became too loud, Ellen Nasser began to listen. What started as a few stolen minutes writing in her closet each morning became a practice of presence—a way of finding meaning in the ordinary and beauty in the heartache of becoming.In Interlude, Nasser gathers the memories, moments, and melodies that have shaped her life. Beginning on the Canadian Prairies and moving through the wider landscapes of travel, motherhood, loss, and self-discovery, she reflects on what it means to belong—to a place, to a family, and ultimately, to oneself. From sunlit childhood afternoons in Saltcoats and Saskatchewan’s endless living skies to the unfamiliar roads of elsewhere, she traces a life in all the mess and music that shimmer in between.
Nasser invites readers and listeners into the intimate textures of a day: the prayer of repetition, the stillness after an argument, the sting of self-doubt asking to be met with gentleness. Between lists and losses, folded laundry and unfinished thoughts, she searches for grace in persistence—the small, steady work of staying open. Her devotion is not ornamental; it is found in the act of staying with what hurts, what heals, and the body’s ache to believe again.
Even the writing of this book became a form of prayer: a daily return to presence, a way of holding life long enough to see the light moving through it.Told with warmth, humour, and radical honesty, Interlude is not a memoir about having all the answers. It is a permission slip to pause, soften, laugh, grieve, and feel without rushing to fix. It is a companion for anyone navigating change, longing for solitude, searching for meaning, or learning to hear their own quiet voice again in a world that so often demands the opposite.
Originally brought to life through Ellen’s own voice and original music, Interlude is meant to be read, heard, felt, and carried with you—like a familiar melody that keeps calling you back to yourself.Written from her home on the Canadian Prairies, Interlude marks Ellen Nasser’s luminous debut.