Published in 1991, when Gil Adamson was in her 20s, by Coach House Press, Primitive explores the perils of family, the freedom of the road ...? sex, cars and lack of sleep. And lizards.

'The gaze is cinematic, precisely intimate yet distant all at once. It is like flipping through channels. It is a fim. It is not elegiac. It is not sleeping. The artefacts of the middle class are restless, their hallways and wallpaper, streets and shoes. This book is their theatre; we don't need a TV.' “—? Erin Moure

GIL ADAMSON is the critically acclaimed author of Ridgerunner, which won the Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize, was a finalist for the Scotiabank Giller Prize, and was named a best book of the year by the Globe and Mail and the CBC. Her first novel, The Outlander, won the Dashiell Hammett Prize for Literary Excellence in Crime Writing, the Amazon.ca First Novel Award, the ReLit Award, and the Drummer General’s Award. It was a finalist for the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, CBC Canada Reads, and the Prix Femina in France; longlisted for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award; and chosen as a Globe and Mail and Washington Post Top 100 Book. She is also the author of a collection of linked stories, Help Me, Jacques Cousteau, and two poetry collections, Primitive and Ashland. She lives in Toronto.

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