Does good fortune always change things for the better?

The Kaplan family has just won 10 million dollars in the lottery. But haven’t they always been lucky? Gwen thought so. She’s carefully curated a perfect suburban existence with a loving husband and two children. For over a decade, she’s been a stay-at-home mom, devoted to giving her kids the quiet, protected adolescence she didn’t have. But the surprise windfall suddenly upends the family, allowing them all to dream a little bigger and catapulting them back to the city that Gwen fled years ago.

As the Kaplans navigate the notoriety that the lottery brings and try to adjust to their new lives in the upper class—Seth launches a dubious start-up, Maddie falls headfirst in love at her elite prep school—a tightly held secret is unlocked. Along with the truth come long-buried memories from Gwen’s troubled youth, forcing her to confront her painful past and threatening to unravel the incredibly tight bond between her and Maddie. Her meticulously constructed identity as the good wife and mother begins to crack. And when their changed circumstances place her family under threat, Gwen must wake up from her domestic slumber.

For readers of Meg Wolitzer, Liane Moriarty and Zoe Whittall, Katrina Onstad’s new novel explores whether our most intimate relationships can survive our most unforgivable actions. Stay Where I Can See You is a penetrating story about the pendulum swing of fortune, the ferocity of mother–daughter devotion and the stories we tell—and withhold—because of love.

KATRINA ONSTAD is a multiple award–winning journalist whose work has appeared in the Globe and Mail, Chatelaine, the New York Times Magazine, the Guardian and Elle. Her critically lauded novels include How Happy to Be and Everybody Has Everything, which was longlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize and shortlisted for the Toronto Book Award. Onstad lives in Toronto with her husband and two children.

Katrina Onstad's profile page

“In this propulsive novel Katrina Onstad shows us a family touched by love, luck, and pain. Her flawed yet compassionate characters grapple with questions of privilege and trauma and the enduring effects of the past on the present. It’s a dramatic and thought-provoking story that testifies to the power of empathy.” — Alix Ohlin, Scotiabank Giller Prize shortlisted author of Dual Citizens

"Who wouldn't want to win the lottery? Well, the answer is... complicated. Stay Where I Can See You is a taut, sharply observed story about buried trauma and the paradoxical nature of good fortune. A powerful novel that calls into question our notions of success and domestic bliss, and I couldn't put it down."
— Michael Christie, Scotiabank Giller Prize longlisted author of Greenwood

“The family at the centre of Stay Where I Can See You experience extraordinary changes in their lives, only to find the ordinary becomes unfamiliar. As much of a page-turner as it is full of insight, Onstad navigates the uneasy intersection of wealth and class. With her incisive eye, she also takes a deeply empathetic look at how girls become women.” — Claire Cameron, bestselling author of The Last Neanderthal

“I loved every page of this gutsy, gorgeously written novel about the dark heart of motherhood and the true cost of trying to leave the past behind.” — Lisa Gabriele, author of The Winters

“A marvel of subtlety and suspense, a fiery reminder of how every family is a fulcrum if so many secret lives. Every great novel contains multitudes, but here is one as fathomless and true as a majestic body of water.” — Lauren Mechling, author of How Could She

"This expertly observed...novel keeps you on the edge of your seat." — NOW Magazine

"An astute family drama. . . .Onstad is especially good at conveying the emotionally fraught terrain between even the closest parents and children and has done a skilful job of invoking the intense anxiety, guilt, and perceived failure endemic to modern motherhood. Stay Where I Can See You is a taut, entertaining, well-crafted novel." — Quill & Quire

Praise for Everybody Has Everything Longlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize
Shortlisted for the Toronto Book Awards
An Amazon Best Book (Editor’s Choice)
A Globe and Mail Top 100 Book
A NOW Magazine Top 10 Book
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“Onstad’s radiant novel is powered by gorgeous writing, a quietly propulsive plot, and an uncannily accurate rendering of the way love, lust, rage, and reconciliation ebb and flow in the life of a couple.” — Real Simple

“Crisp, gripping and deeply thought-provoking.” — Library Journal (starred review)

“Ambitious and assured. . . . Thoroughly convincing.” — The Globe and Mail

“A literary excursion into the poignancy and murkiness of loss, parenting and marriage. . . . Intelligent, ambitious and unsettling. . . . Most definitely memorable.” — Winnipeg Free Press

“Onstad makes a significant leap into the deep end with this story. . . . Brave work from a writer who gets better with every book.” — NOW Magazine

“Unsparingly honest. . . . Never sentimental but always compassionate, this compelling book is hard to put down.” — Hello! Canada

“Everyone will recognize the all too common yearnings and failings of two people trying to figure out what will make them happy . . . “ — Chatelaine

“Utterly rich, vivid and filled with urgency. I couldn’t take my eyes off of these characters.”
— Kaui Hart Hemmings, author of The Descendants

“Everybody Has Everything is about many things – family, friendship, responsibility, loss – but at its heart, it’s about what happens when the person you love suddenly veers off in another direction. It is unflinching yet tender, gripping and lyrical and devastating. I can’t stop thinking about it.”
— Lauren Fox, author of Still Life with Husband and Friends Like Us

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by JessF