High in the Canadian Arctic, British art historian Jenny pursues her passions: Inuit art and a handsome geologist. But the sudden news that her mother has suffered a stroke reels Jenny back to her old life — the responsible youngest daughter of parents who gave up everything to join a religious cult. In Inverness, Jenny tries to put the jumbled pieces together, while turning to her collection of “worry stones” for comfort. Did her mother escape from the cult? Is her father, a prominent cult leader, threatening to take her back? Can Jenny persuade her sisters to set aside old grievances to save their mother? Amidst the turmoil, Jenny tries to breaks free of the childhood pressures that stifled her creative talents and emerge as an artist in her own right.

Joanna Lilley has lived north of the 60th parallel in Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada, since she emigrated from the UK in 2006. Her poetry collection, The Fleece Era, was published by Brick Books in 2014 and her short fiction collection, The Birthday Books, will be published by Hagios Press in their Strike Fire New Author Series in 2015. Joanna's poems and stories have been published in journals and anthologies in Canada, the US and the UK, including The Malahat Review, The New Quarterly, Grain, The Fiddlehead and The Antigonish Review. Her awards include first prize in the 2005 Lothian Life poetry contest and first prize in the 2004 Worldwise regional creative writing competition. Joanna has a MLitt degree in creative writing from the universities of Glasgow and Strathclyde and is a Humber School for Writers graduate. In 2011 and 2013, she received Advanced Artist Awards from the Government of Yukon. With diplomas in plain language editing and journalism, Joanna earns her living as a public sector communications professional.

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“Worry Stones is a gorgeously written novel. I stayed up late reading it and then treated myself to a chapter each morning.” —Julie Salverson, author of Lines of Flight

“With tenderness and poetic vision, Lilley beautifully portrays the complex connections we have to family. An enthralling story written with boundless love for the natural world.” —Maia Caron, author of Song of Batoche