LEDGER OF THE OPEN HAND

Ledger of the Open Hand looks at the intimate power of money and emotional debt through the eyes of a woman trying to grab hold of her own life. Beholden to a shrewd friend and burdened by family obligations and guilt, Meriel-Claire (MC) finally stumbles into what she's been missing. She falls in love and finds her calling as a debt counsellor in the midst of a national financial crisis. But balancing the books for strangers is easier than reconciling her own complicated relationships. Regrets and deficits accumulate until MC must decide what she owes to those she loves. With humour and insight, Ledger explores giving, taking, and our tendency to treat love as a balance sheet.

Leslie Vryenhoek's award-winning poetry, fiction and memoir have appeared across Canada and internationally. She is the author of Scrabble Lessons (fiction, 2009) and Gulf (poetry, 2011), published by Oolichan. A former Manitoban now based in St. John's, Newfoundland, Vryenhoek is the founding director of Piper's Frith: Writing at Kilmory. Ledger of the Open Hand is her first novel.