Sweetly funny and deeply perceptive, this novel follows teenager Maya Devine’s search for her mother, her father, and above all, herself, offering a fresh take on what it is to grow up and to be part of a family. Maya’s mother Marigold is desperate for enlightenment: she drags Maya to library lectures on making money and gardening as part of her home schooling, attends AA meetings even though she never has more than two drinks at a time, and conscripts Maya for the very personal crusade of spreading the words of the Bhagavad Gita from street corners. When Marigold is diagnosed with cancer and vows to spend her final days in the tepee she’s set up in the backyard, 11-year-old Maya starts hearing people’s thoughts as neighbors and strangers, believing the dying Marigold to be a prophet, camp out on the family’s front yard. As her father grows ever more distant, Maya finds solace in the music of Corey Hart, but when Marigold’s death leaves questions unanswered, Maya discovers that there are some fates that cannot be escaped.
close this panelAllison Baggio is a writer whose work has appeared in numerous magazines and publications, including Room, sub-Terrain Magazine, Today’s Parent, and the Toronto Star. She is a graduate of York University and the Humber School for Writers. She lives in Toronto, Ontario.
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