A family is haunted by suffering, loss and pain in this poetic novel about the violence of patriarchy and possibilities of resistance in the lower townships of Anglo-Québec.Roses De'ath lives and works at the grungy local hotel in De'ath Sound, a town named for her mother — a continually hovering presence who has recently checked herself out of a sanitarium and is suffering a gradual loss of memory. The other inhabitants of De'ath Sound include August, Roses' stepfather and sometime lover; Loralie, the local prostitute, whose existence in this place is a failure to exist in any other place; Bat, a young man drawn into the incestuous loop of Roses' family; and Roses' biological father, the old man Potter — outcast because of his scaly bird leg.Driven to the unnerving reaches of language, informed by the fluidity of time and caprices of memory, rather than a linear plot, this rich novel exists at the intersection of the body, language and self. Anne Stone has created a wrenching portrait of the murky vision and dulled sense that is the price paid for secrets and deceptions, and the exhausting effort of burying tremendous pain throughout generations.

Anne Stone is the author of three novels: Delible (2007), Hush (1999) and jacks: a gothic gospel (1998). She is currently at work on a collection of short fiction. She spent her childhood in Toronto, lived in Montreal, and now makes her home in Vancouver, where she teaches Creative Writing and Literature at Capilano University.

Anne Stone's profile page