A riveting novel about a mother’s all-consuming worry for her child over forty-eight hours at a remote cottage with old friends and a mysterious neighbour

Ruth is the fiercely protective mother of four-year-old Fern. Together they visit a remote family cottage belonging to Stef, the woman who has been Ruth’s best friend—and her husband’s best friend—for years. Stef is everything Ruth is not—confident, loud, carefree—and Ruth cannot seem to escape her. While Fern runs wild with Stef’s older twins and dockside drinks flow freely among the adults, they’re joined by Stef’s neighbour Marvin, a man whose manic pursuit of fun is matched only by his side comments about his absent wife. As day moves into night and darkness settles over the woods that surround the cottages, the edges among this group of people sharpen until a suspected threat takes an unexpected turn.

ISBN: 9781443458870
Imprint: Harper Perennial
On Sale: Feb 2, 2021
List price: $18.99
No of pages: 240
Trim Size: 4.710 in (w) x 7.170 in (h) x 1.040 in (d)
BISAC 1: FICTION / Psychological
BISAC 2: FICTION / General

Jessica Westhead

Biography

JESSICA WESTHEAD’s fiction has been shortlisted for the CBC Literary Awards, longlisted for CBC Canada Reads, selected for the Journey Prize anthology and nominated for a National Magazine Award. Her short stories have appeared in major literary journals including Hazlitt, Maisonneuve, Indiana Review and Hamish Hamilton’s Five Dials. She is the author of the novel Pulpy and Midge and the critically acclaimed short story collections Things Not to Do and And Also Sharks, which was a Globe and Mail Top 100 Book, a Kobo Best eBook of the Year and a finalist for the Danuta Gleed Literary Award. Worry was chosen by CBC Books as a top Canadian fiction book of the year. Westhead is a creative writing instructor at the Chang School of Continuing Education at Ryerson University.

A riveting novel about a mother’s all-consuming worry for her child over forty-eight hours at a remote cottage with old friends and a mysterious neighbour

Ruth is the fiercely protective mother of four-year-old Fern. Together they visit a remote family cottage belonging to Stef, the woman who has been Ruth’s best friend—and her husband’s best friend—for years. Stef is everything Ruth is not—confident, loud, carefree—and Ruth cannot seem to escape her. While Fern runs wild with Stef’s older twins and dockside drinks flow freely among the adults, they’re joined by Stef’s neighbour Marvin, a man whose manic pursuit of fun is matched only by his side comments about his absent wife. As day moves into night and darkness settles over the woods that surround the cottages, the edges among this group of people sharpen until a suspected threat takes an unexpected turn.

ISBN: 9781443458870
Imprint: Harper Perennial
On Sale: Feb 2, 2021
List price: $18.99
No of pages: 240
Trim Size: 4.710 in (w) x 7.170 in (h) x 1.040 in (d)
BISAC 1: FICTION / Psychological
BISAC 2: FICTION / General

Jessica Westhead

Biography

JESSICA WESTHEAD’s fiction has been shortlisted for the CBC Literary Awards, longlisted for CBC Canada Reads, selected for the Journey Prize anthology and nominated for a National Magazine Award. Her short stories have appeared in major literary journals including Hazlitt, Maisonneuve, Indiana Review and Hamish Hamilton’s Five Dials. She is the author of the novel Pulpy and Midge and the critically acclaimed short story collections Things Not to Do and And Also Sharks, which was a Globe and Mail Top 100 Book, a Kobo Best eBook of the Year and a finalist for the Danuta Gleed Literary Award. Worry was chosen by CBC Books as a top Canadian fiction book of the year. Westhead is a creative writing instructor at the Chang School of Continuing Education at Ryerson University.