NATIONAL BESTSELLER
"An absolutely unforgettable novel."--Ian Williams
A masterwork from one of the country's most critically acclaimed and
beloved writers that grapples with male violence, sexual abuse, and
madness. Complusively readable and heartstopping.
Wade Jackson, a young man from a Newfoundland outport, wants to be a
writer. In the university library in St. John's, where he goes every day
to absorb the great books of the world, he encounters the fascinating,
South African-born Rachel van Hout, and soon they are lovers.
Rachel is the youngest of four van Hout daughters, each in their own way
a wounded soul. The oldest, Gloria, has a string of broken marriages
behind her. Carmen is addicted to every drug her Afrikaner dealer
husband can lay his hands on. Bethany, the most sardonic of the sisters,
is fighting a losing battle with anorexia. And then there is Rachel, who
reads The Diary of Anne Frank obsessively, and diarizes her days in a
secret language of her own invention, writing to the point of breakdown
and beyond--an obsession that has deeper and more disturbing roots than
Wade could ever have imagined.
Confronting the central mystery of his character Rachel's life--and his
own--Wayne Johnston has created a brilliant and searing tour de force
that pulls the reader toward a conclusion both inevitable and impossible
to foresee.
