THE BEGUILING

From a Scotiabank Giller Prize-shortlisted writer, an electrifying debut novel about a lapsed Catholic whose adolescent pretensions to sainthood are unexpectedly revived.

It all starts when Lucy's cousin Zoltan, in a hospital following a bizarre accident at a party, offers her a disturbing deathbed confession. As Lucy's grief takes an unusual turn and strangers begin to unburden themselves to her, Lucy is transformed into a self-described “flesh and blood Wailing Wall.” Then she becomes addicted to the dark stories and finds herself seeking them out.

As the confessions pile up, Lucy begins to wonder if Zoltan's death was as random and unscripted as it appeared. She clutches at alarming synchronicities and seeks meaning in the stories of strangers. Why do the increasingly bizarre confessions seem connected to one another or eerily echo elements of her own life? Could it be because Lucy has her own transgressions to acknowledge? And then there is that stubbornly resurfacing past, like a tell-tale ribbon of hair snagged on a fish hook.

With ruthless wit and dizzying energy, The Beguiling explores blessings and curses, sainthood and sin, mortality, and guilt in all its guises. Weaving together tales of errant mothers, vengeful plants, canine wisdom, and murder, it lays bare the flesh and blood sacrifices people are willing to make to get what they think they desire.

ZSUZSI GARTNER, the Scotiabank Giller Prize-shortlisted author of two widely acclaimed story collections, was the inaugural Frank O'Connor International Short Story Fellow in 2016 in Cork, Ireland. She lives in Vancouver.