Zsuzsi Gartner

Zsuzsi Gartner is the author of the Scotiabank Giller Prize-shortlisted Better Living through Plastic Explosives and the acclaimed story collection All the Anxious Girls on Earth. She is also the editor of the award-winning anthology Darwin’s Bastards: Astounding Tales from Tomorrow. Her debut novel, The Beguiling, was a finalist for the 2020 Writers Trust Fiction Prize and a Globe & Mail “Best Book.” A French edition, Le Malenchantment de Sainte Lucy, was published in August, 2021 by Ḗditions Alto. She lives in Vancouver.

Every sentence in Zsuzsi Gartner’s debut novel The Beguiling is a masterclass in the art of fiction. –Robert J. Wiersem

FESTIVAL BOOK

The Beguiling

The perfect next read for fans of Ottessa Moshfegh and George Saunders, an electrifying debut about a woman who is transformed into a real life “flesh-and-blood Wailing Wall” as strangers unburden their sins to her at every turn.

Lucy is a lapsed Catholic whose adolescent pretensions to sainthood are unexpectedly revived following the disturbing deathbed confession of her cousin Zoltán. Afterwards, Lucy becomes a magnet for the unshriven, and she’s transformed into a self-described “flesh-and-blood Wailing Wall” as strangers unburden themselves to her. Lucy finds herself addicted to these dark stories, craving hit after hit.

As the confessions pile up, Lucy begins to wonder if Zoltán’s death was as random and unscripted as it appeared. She clutches at alarming synchronicities and seeks meaning from the strangers’ stories, wondering why they seem connected to each other and eerily echo elements of her own life.

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, this electrifying debut novel lays bare the sacrifices some are willing to make to get what they think they desire.

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Owl’s Nest Books (Calgary) | Calgary Public Library

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