Hush - Softcover

A family is haunted by suffering and loss in this poetic novel about the violence of patriarchy and possibilities of resistance, set in the lower townships of Anglo-Quebec.
Roses De'ath lives and works at the grungy hotel in De'ath Sound, a town named for her mother, a continually hovering presence who has recently checked herself out of a sanitarium and is suffering a gradual loss of memory. The other inhabitants of De'ath include August, Roses' stepfather and occasional lover; Loralie, the local prostitute, whose existence in this place is a failure to exist in any other place; Bat, a young man drawn into the incestuous loop of Roses' family; and Roses' biological father, the old man Potter - outcast because of his scaly birdleg.
Driven to unnerving reaches of language, informed by the fluidity of time and caprices of memory rather than a linear plot, this novel exists at the intersection of the body, language and self. Anne Stone has created a wrenching portrait of the murky vision and dulled sense that are the price paid for secrets and deception, and the exhausting effort of burying tremendous pain throughout generations.