POLAR VORTEX

Longlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize.
Some secrets never die..

Priya and Alexandra have moved from the city to a picturesque countryside town. What Alex doesn't know is that in moving, Priya is running from her past - from a fraught relationship with an old friend, Prakash, who pursued her for many years, both online and off. Time has passed, however, and Priya, confident that her ties to Prakash have been successfully severed, decides it's once more safe to establish an online presence. In no time, Prakash discovers Priya online and contacts her. Impulsively, inexplicably, Priya invites him to visit her and Alex in the country, without ever having come clean with Alex about their relationship - or its tumultuous end. Prakash's sudden arrival at their home reveals cracks in Priya and Alex's relationship and brings into question Priya's true intentions. Seductive and tension-filled, POLAR VORTEX is a story of secrets, deceptions, and revenge. It asks readers: Are we ever free from our pasts? Do we deserve to be?

Shani Mootoo's novels include “Moving Forward Sideways Like a Crab”, long-listed for the Scotiabank Giller Prize, shortlisted for the Lambda Award; “Valmiki's Daughter”, long-listed for the Scotiabank Giller Prize; “He Drown She in the Sea”, long-listed for the Dublin IMPAC Award, and “Cereus Blooms at Night”, shortlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize, The Chapters First Novel Award, The Ethel Wilson Book Prize, and long-listed for the Man Booker Prize. She is a K.M. Hunter Arts Award and 2017 Chalmers Fellowship Award, and the James Duggins Outstanding Midcareer Novelist Award recipient. Shani Mootoo was born in Ireland, grew up in Trinidad and lives in Canada. She holds an MA in English from the University of Guelph, writes fiction and poetry, and is a visual artist who has exhibited locally and internationally, most notably at the Museum of Modern Art, NYC, the Vancouver Art Gallery, and at the Venice Biennale. She currently lives with her wife in Prince Edward County, Canada.