Gladys Pratt was in control, the mistress of her own domain. In the sixties she and her husband were running a lodge in a remote area of the Yukon. Communication to the outside world was by mail, if it got out. Gladys was a tyrant. Deeply unhappy in her own life, she made life miserable for everyone aruond her - her housekeeper, her cooks and the young women who worked as her waitresses during the summer months. Kendy and Elke were two of them - fresh out of high school and heading to university, they anticipated earning enough money to pay their first semester's tuition. Elke was shy andtimid, new at waitressing and often the butt of Gladys's wrath. But Kendy was more confident and found the courage to stand up to Gladys, and for that Gladys's punishment was devastating. Hating Gladys is a story of conflicting emotions told from both Elke's and Gladys's points of view. Their disparate voices weave a story of wit and irony, humour and anguish. Gom explores the damaged lives of younger and older women learning to deal with bitterness and betrayal, the destructive impulses of a dangerous hatred, and the tracherous but remedial ways of understanding and forgiveness.

Leona Gom is the author of 13 books of fiction and poetry, and has been published extensively in journals and anthologies in Canada, the US, England, Germany, France, the Czech Republic, Australia and New Zealand. She has also given hundreds of readings, lectures and workshops on writing. In 1980 her book Land of the Peace won the CAA Award for best book of poetry of the year and was short-listed for the Pat Lowther Award. In 1986 her novel Housebroken was awarded the Ethel Wilson Prize for Fiction. She has also had two full-length radio plays, The Inheritance and Sour Air, produced by CBC, and one of her novels has recently been optioned for a movie.

Leona Gom's profile page