In the long hot summers of the 1950s, in the kingdom of inland seas that is Upper Canada, three girls share their adolescent secrets and dreams. The rules of contest are the only ones they know as they vie for one godlike boy. They are Shelly, vulnerable, childlike, boastful, possessive.... Bobby, flamboyant, generous, rebellious, queening it with her sexuality.... and Jude, the intellectual, who writes poetry and erotic fantasy and prays to Mrs. God to make her more than an observer of life. When they meet again in the summer land of speedboats and private islands, their childhood crudity has become adult decadence, and beneath the languorous social trivia are fear, lust, frantic love. And a trick played ten years before returns to wreak havoc in all their hearts as the world around seems on the verge of cataclysm.

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SUSAN SWAN's fiction has been published in twenty countries and received numerous honours. Her first novel, The Biggest Modern Woman of the World (1983), was a finalist for the Governor General’s Award for fiction and the Smith’s Best First Novel Award, and is currently being made into a film. Her other books include the short story collection Stupid Boys are Good to Relax With (1996), the novel Last of the Golden Girls (1989), and The Wives of Bath (1993). The film adaptation of The Wives of Bath, called Lost and Delirious, has been released in 32 countries and was featured as a Premiere Selection at the 2001 Sundance Film Festival. Her most recent novel, What Casanova Told Me (2001), was published to rave reviews. Susan Swan lives in Toronto, Ontario, and is an associate professor of Humanities at York University.

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