Fiction. LGBT Studies. A seventeen-year-old boy, bullied and heartbroken, hangs himself. And although he felt terribly alone, his suicide changes everyone around him. His parents are devastated. His secret boyfriend's girlfriend is relieved. His unicorn- and virginity-obsessed classmate, Faraday, is shattered; she wishes she had made friends with him that time she sold him an Iced Cappuccino at Tim Hortons. His English teacher, mid-divorce and mid-menopause, wishes she could remember the dead student's name, that she could care more about her students than her ex's new girlfriend. Who happens to be her cousin. The school guidance counselor, Walter, feels guilty—maybe he should have made an effort when the kid asked for help. Max, the principal, is worried about how it will reflect on the school. And Walter, who's secretly been in a relationship with Max for years, thinks that's a little callous. He's also tired of Max's obsession with some sci-fi show on TV. And Max wishes Walter would lose some weight and remember to use a coaster. And then Max meets a drag queen named Crepe Suzette. And everything changes.

Author City: CALGARY, AB CAN

Suzette Mayr is the author of the novels Moon Honey (NeWest Press, 1995), The Widows (NeWest Press, 1998), Venous Hum (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2004) and MONOCEROS (Coach House Books, 2011). Her books have been nominated for various prizes, including the Scotiabank Giller Prize, the Commonwealth Writers' Prize, the Georges Bugnet Award for Fiction and the Henry Kreisel Award for Best First Book. Suzette Mayr lives and works in Calgary, where she teaches creative writing at the University of Calgary.

Reviews and Other Links
author site
Publishers Weekly
interview by Daniel Nester @ We Who Are About to Die
Terri Solomon @ Lambda Literary
Nathaniel G. Moore @ the Toronto Globe and Mail