Finalist, ForeWord Reviews Book of the Year Awards

Isabella is confined for life to the college her medievalist father founded. Now a brilliant and beautiful young woman, she starts to question her vow of confinement and long for freedom. But, should Isabella risk giving up her comfortable, protected life in the college for the outside world? The dark mystery behind her confinement unravels slowly amidst quirky characters and intellectual hijinks. Who can Isabella trust? What really happened to her mother? The truth comes at a high price, and in the end Isabella must make a life-altering decision.

“… anyone who opts to pick up a copy can fully expect to read something that is both complex and coherent.” (The Peak, SFU)

Michael Hetherington has bachelors degrees from Queen’s University and the University of British Columbia and a masters degree in International Relations from the London School of Economics.

His published books to date include: The Late Night Caller (Turnstone Press, 2003); The Archive Carpet (Passfield Press, 2012); The Playing Card (Passfield Press, 2013); Halving the Orange (Passfield Press, 2014); and, Hooked (Passfield Press, 2014). His first novel, The Playing Card, won the gold medal for best fiction from the Canada West region – 2014 Independent Publisher Book Awards, and was a finalist in the literary fiction category – ForeWord Reviews 2013 Book of the Year Awards. Halving the Orange was a finalist in the same category in the ForeWord Reviews 2014 Awards. In 2015, Hooked was named a Shelf Unbound Notable 100 for 2015.

He has appeared in many events—including on the radio, Pandora’s Collective’s Twisted Poets Literary Salon, LitFest NewWest, and Surrey Libraries’ “Authors Among Us”—promoting his books. Michael’s work – including excerpts from The Late Night Caller and The Archive Carpet – has been published in literary magazines such as: Blood & Aphorisms, Exile, Geist, Lichen, The Malahat Review, Matrix, ON SPEC, and The New Quarterly.

He has a son and daughter and lives in North Vancouver. Visit Michael Hetherington’s website at michaelhetherington.ca.