Gail Anderson-Dargatz

Books

Gail Anderson-Dargatz

Books

The Spawning Grounds

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National bestseller.

Nominated for the Sunburst Award for Excellence in Canadian Literature of the Fantastic, the Ontario Library Association Evergreen Award, and short-listed for the Canadian Authors Association Literary Award for fiction.

#1 on the Loanstars list and on the Huffington Post Best Fall Books list. On the Chatelaine list of Best Fall Books, CBC Fall Preview, and Zoomer's Literary Loves: 12 Must Read Fall Releases.

About the book:

On one side of the river is a ranch once owned by Eugene Robertson, who came during the gold rush around 1860, and stayed on as a homesteader. On the other side is a Shuswap community that has its own tangled history with the river--and the whites. At the heart of the novel are Hannah and Brandon Robertson, teenagers who have been raised by their grandfather after they lost their mother. As the novel opens, the river is dying, its flow reduced to a trickle, and Hannah is carrying salmon past the chokepoint to the spawning grounds as her childhood best friend, Alex, leads a native protest against the development that further threatens the river. When drowning nearly claims the lives of both Hannah's grandfather and her little brother, their world is thrown into chaos. Hannah, Alex, and most especially Brandon come to doubt their own sanity as they are pulled deep into Brandon's numinous visions, which summon the myths of Shuswap culture and tragic family stories of the past.   

The novel hovers beautifully in the fluid boundary between past and present, between the ordinary world and the world of the spirit, all disordered by the human and environmental crises that have knit the white and native worlds together in love, and hate, and tragedy for 150 years. Can Hannah and her brother find a way forward that will neither destroy the river nor themselves?

To order:

Please support your local independent bookseller, or buy online through Chapters Indigo or Amazon.ca.

For more options, go to the Penguin Random House Canada site.

Reviews

The Almost Widow

“With unique characters, shocking twists, and an emotional core, Gail Anderson-Dargatz’s latest is impossible to put down.”

— Robyn Harding, international bestselling author of The Party

 

The Almost Widow

The Almost Wife

"Compulsively readable... an engrossing study of the truth that we can never out-run our childhood."

— Gail Bowen, Author of the Joanne Kilbourn-Shreve mystery novels

The Almost Wife

The Spawning Grounds

"Anderson-Dargatz has set the bar dauntingly high for every new work; it’s a measure that The Spawning Grounds more than meets..."

―The Georgia Straight

The Spawning Grounds

Turtle Valley

“Exquisite. . . . Anderson-Dargatz creates a strong sense of the complexity of ordinary life.”

The Globe and Mail

Turtle Valley

A Rhinestone Button

"Gail Anderson-Dargatz writes lovely novels about unlovely people: unlovely people who grow beautiful under her compassionate, masterful, sly authorial gaze."

Quill and Quire


 

A Rhinestone Button

A Recipe for Bees

"In language remarkable for its suppleness and unforced simplicity, Anderson-Dargatz delivers both a quirky love story and a serene meditation on endurance and its rich rewards." 

 ― The Washington Post

A Recipe for Bees

The Cure for Death by Lightning

"Gail Anderson-Dargatz...makes her debut in full stride, confidently breaking the rules to create a fictional style we might call Pacific Northwest Gothic." 

 ― The Boston Globe

 

The Cure for Death by Lightning

Spotting Dottie

“A fabulous read that will leave its readers wondering: 'What would I do if I was placed in a similar situation?’ Highly Recommended.”

– CM: Canadian Review of Materials

Spotting Dottie

My Life Off-key

“Both a coming-of-age story and a road map for processing difficult emotions.”

– Kirkus Reviews

My Life Off-key

Bigfoot Crossing

“Pulse-pounding…A terrific addition to the high/low canon for readers seeking a thrill.”
– Booklist

Bigfoot Crossing

Iggy's World

“Iggy’s World is about family and also fitting in. It also looks at the meaning of true friendship and what a friend can look like. A good read. Highly Recommended."

– CM: Canadian Review of Materials

Iggy's World

The Ride Home

"Delightfully poignant...Will hook all middle school readers into [the] story with language they will understand and find amusing."

― The Ormsby Review

The Ride Home