Everyone has a story in them and Holly Kowalski is no exception. A successful dentist with two grown children, living alone in Toronto, she decides to write her autobiography, which leads her through poignant and painful memories of the triumphs and tragedies of her life. Dorris Heffron tells the engrossing tale of Holly's awkward childhood; her entrapment in her pursuit for middle-class respectability through her marriage to Paul, a successful dentist; and the horrific moment of violence that forever changes her life, and forces her to forge a new beginning for herself and her children. A Shark In The House is a story of love and ambition, death and survival, and the strangeness that lurks within the most seemingly ordinary lives. (1996)

DORRIS HEFFRON was born in Noranda, Quebec. She received an Hons. B.A. and M.A. in literature and philosophy from Queen's University. While teaching for Oxford University throughout the seventies, she wrote three novels about teenagers which were internationally acclaimed as pioneers of young adult literature. Returning to Canada in 1980, she became an active member of writers? organizations and wrote the popular adult novel, A Shark in the House. She lives with her pack and sled dogs at Little Creek Wolf Range near Collingwood, Ontario.

Dorris Heffron's profile page