“There is so much to say about this novel that it's tempting to stall out right at the title. It brings forward so many questions: What do we owe the people who crash into our lives? How do we show them they are loved? And who will love them if not us? Every character in this story explodes with such life and vibrancy that it's hard not to love every single one of them, despite their mistakes and cruelties. Though a brutal stabbing is what connects this trio, the real anchor is the love between mothers and their children, and how this love shapes the world. Anyone who appreciates interwoven narratives and elegant metaphors will devour this book. ”
Publisher House of Anansi Press
Publication Date 2022-08-16
Section New Hardcover - Fiction / All Staff Suggestions / Fiction Suggestions / Melissa S.
Format Hardcover
ISBN 9781487001193
From the celebrated author of February and Caught comes an exhilarating new novel that asks: What makes a family? How does it shape us? And can we ever really choose who we love?
As the snowstorm of the century rages toward Newfoundland, twenty-one-year-old Xavier is beaten and stabbed in a vicious attack. His mother, Jules, must fight her way through the shuttered streets of St. John’s to reach the hospital where Xavier lies unconscious. When a video of the attack surfaces, Jules struggles to make sense of what she sees in the footage — and of what she can’t quite make out.
While Xavier’s story unfolds, so, too, do the stories that brought him there. Here, across families and generations, are stories of mothers, fathers, sisters, and brothers; of children cared for, neglected, lost, and re-found; of selfless generosity and reluctant debt. Above all, Moore, in the inimitable largesse of her art, paints a shimmering portrait of the sacrifice, pain, and wild joy of loving.
A tour de force of storytelling and craft, This is How We Love brings us a cast of characters so rich and true they could only have been written by Lisa Moore.
