Nearly 20 years ago, Canadian author André Alexis told the CBC about his theory that we all have a thousand childhoods — and why it's so important to always leave room for life to recreate itself.

"As you live your life and you remember different parts vividly, your life changes according to what's happened," he says. "I mean, your life looks different after you've fallen in love, after you've fallen out of love, after you've met a close friend, after your parents die. And each of those events changes what has gone before, so that what you have is the constant recreation of how you have come to the place. And it's important if you're gonna go on in life, if you have a future, that your past changes along with it. I mean, that's part of what being alive is."

Being defended by Humble The Poet, Alexis's latest novel Fifteen Dogs is currently in the running for Canada Reads 2017, having made it into the top three. Stay tuned for updates and other special finds from our archives this week!

For more throwbacks like this one, visit the CBC Digital Archives.