"A breathtaking debut . . . filled with ghosts and demons who lurk in the Canadian north woods." —Andrew Abrahams, People

On the eve of his mother’s death, Stephen comes home to Sawgamet, a logging town where the dangers of working in the cuts are overshadowed by the dark mysteries and magic lurking in the woods. Thirty years after the mythical summer his grandfather returned to town on a quixotic search for his dead wife, Stephen confronts the painful losses in his own life.

Shortlisted for the 2011 Governor General's Literary Award • Shortlisted for The 2011 Center for Fiction's Flahery-Dunnan First Novel Prize • Shortlisted for the 2012 VCU Cabell First Novelist Award • Shortlisted for the 2011 Amazon.ca First Novel Award • Longlisted for the 2011 Scotiabank Giller Prize • Longlisted for the 2013 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award • Starred Review Publishers Weekly • Starred Review Quill & Quire