Description
Fiction. ...AND THIS IS THE CURE follows Allison Winter, public radio pop-culture journalist and former riot grrrrrl as she regains custody of her adolescent daughter, Hanna, following the murder of her ex-husband. She is unprepared to deal with either the demands of parenting or the fury of her ex-husband's religiously conservative, grieving family, so she pulls up roots and moves Hanna from Winnipeg to Toronto. Allison's sweet-natured partner, Eden, struggles to take on the day-to-day parenting while Allison resumes her career and avoids the chaos building at home. Despite all efforts, tensions swell and Hanna's rage over her disrupted life eventually erupts in episodes of violence.
Allison's past histories—as a frontwoman for a riot grrrrrl band and her earlier history as a runaway from a conservative Christian family—return to haunt her present life. Her former bandmates want to reunite for a tour of Japan, and her sister demands help in caring for their difficult and aging mother. Allison decides it would be best for them all to return to Winnipeg, but this only sparks a whole new chapter of familial conflict, and precipitates a disastrous event that forces Allison to confront her estranged relationship with her mother and come to terms with her own troubled past.
...AND THIS IS THE CURE is a novel about the weight of unresolved baggage—its pain and trauma—and working through the process of healing and moving on.
Author Bio
Annette Lapointe (she/her) lived in rural Saskatchewan, Quebec City, St John's, Saskatoon, Winnipeg, and South Korea before settling in northern Alberta. She now lives in Treaty 8 territory, on the traditional lands of the Beaver people, and teaches English and creative writing at Northwestern Polytechnic.
Her first novel, STOLEN (Anvil Press, 2006), was nominated for a Giller Prize and was the Winner of two Saskatchewan Book Awards (First Book Award and Saskatoon Book Award). A Finalist for the Books in Canada First Novel Award, as well as being cited as a Globe & Mail Top 5 First Fiction choice, STOLEN also garnered Lapointe a Canadian Authors Association-BookTV Emerging Writer award. She is the author of two other acclaimed novels (WHITETAIL SHOOTING GALLERY (Anvil Press, 2012) - finalist for the McNally Robinson Book of the Year - and . . . AND THIS IS THE CURE (Anvil Press, 2021)), and a collection of short stories, YOU ARE NOT NEEDED NOW (Anvil Press, 2017). SWIM: INTO THE NORTH'S BLUE EYE (Anvil Press, 2017) is her debut poetry collection.
Author City: CALGARY, AB CAN