The Sudden Weight of Snow

Laisha Rosnau

McClelland & Stewart, Dec 18, 2012 - Fiction - 352 pages

This virtuoso first novel weaves stories and decades into a tightly knit, haunting narrative, as it sets into relief two generations marked by the 1960s – those who lived through them, and those who came after. Seventeen-year-old Sylvia (Harper) Kostak is caught between her mother’s regrets and the strictures of small-town life in the interior of British Columbia. When Harper meets Gabe, an intense and enigmatic young man living on the ’60s-style arts commune outside of town, she is transfixed. Gradually we learn Gabe’s story and what led him to join his estranged mother on the commune, where, in a bid for freedom, Harper eventually finds herself, setting in motion a series of events leading to tragedy. Resonant with longing and a sense of isolation, the novel brings alive the agonies and ecstasies of growing up, sexual discovery, and how the need to belong can shape both decisions and destinies.

About the author

Laisha Rosnau was born in Pointe Claire, Quebec, and grew up in Vernon, British Columbia. She has worked as a child-care worker, a landscaper, a waitress, a fruit picker, an interpretive guide, a journalist, and an editor. She received a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from the University of British Columbia, where she was the Executive Editor of PRISM international. Her poetry and short fiction have been published in literary journals and anthologies in Canada, the United States, and Australia. The Sudden Weight of Snow is her first novel. 

Laisha Rosnau lives in Vancouver, where she is at work on a collection of poetry and on her second novel.

Bibliographic information

• Title: The Sudden Weight of Snow
• Author: Laisha Rosnau
• Publisher: McClelland & Stewart, 2012
• ISBN: 1551997002, 9781551997001
• Length: 352 pages
• Subjects: Fiction / Coming of Age; Fiction / Literary; Fiction / Small Town & Rural