Compassionate, honest and unsparing, this extraordinary novel captures the many shades of friendship and love through the story of three women who are lifetime friends.

Sandra, Collen and Jude share sexual secrets, decorating tips, counsel on marriage, even a hairdresser. Despite their differences and occasional snarls, the friendship only grows stronger over time, and their partners, Jack, Richard and Gus, go along with it, letting it shape their lives. Now, with Sandra's crisis, everyone must find a way to endure the present and imagine the future. Sweeping through and beyond the second half of the twentieth century -- from men on the moon to 9/11 -- this intimate story of friendship creates an indelible portrait of three women balanced on the knife edge of middle age.

Suddenly is classic Burnard: subtle, witty, revelatory, brave. This is a seminal novel with the power to change the way women -- and men -- understand one another.

Bonnie Burnard is a past winner of the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, Best First Book Award for her first collection of short stories, Women of Influence. Her second collection, Casino & Other Stories, was nominated for a Giller Prize and was awarded the Saskatchewan Best Book of the Year Award. She was also the recipient of the 1995 Marian Engel Award, given to honor a woman writer in mid-career. Born in southern Ontario, she lived for many years in Regina and now lives in London, Ontario.

Bonnie Burnard’s Casino & Other Stories was shortlisted for the inaugural Giller Prize and won the Saskatchewan Best Book Award. Her first story collection, Women of Influence, won the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best First Book. Her first novel, A Good House, won The Giller Prize and the CBA People’s Choice Award and was published around the world in many languages. A recipient of the Marian Engle Award, Burnard lives in London, Ontario.

Bonnie Burnard's profile page