“Alison Taylor’s debut novel is a riveting exploration of two tough women, a mother and a daughter, on a separate but similar journey, to figure out who they want to be and how to love each other again.” —Zoe Whittall, author of Scotiabank Giller Prize finalist The Best Kind of People

Shared trauma has driven them a world apart; they will need to find each other again to begin to heal

Nightmares still haunt Chloe thirteen years after a fatal tragedy led to the disintegration of her family. Her mother, Jules, has a busy tech career, a long history of chronic pain—and little time for Chloe. After Chloe drops out of university to travel for a year, Jules’s OxyContin dependency quickly worsens. Aftershock follows their parallel journeys: Jules struggles to regain control of her life, while Chloe, after a rocky visit with her estranged father in New Zealand, resolves to go off the map and spend some time alone, travelling. When Jules suddenly can’t find her daughter, the feeling is all too familiar. Mother and daughter will need to address old secrets and the emotional impact they have wrought before they can reconcile with each other, and, finally, with themselves.

ALISON TAYLOR was fired from jobs as a babysitter, a chambermaid, a barista and a farm hand, before spending twenty years as a television editor in Toronto, Ontario. They have previously published a short story in Exile Literary Quarterly, performed deadpan stand-up on various comedy stages and made several internationally screened experimental short films. They now live in Fredericton, New Brunswick with their partner and two bossy felines. Aftershock is their first novel.

Alison Taylor's profile page

• Atlantic Book Awards
• KOBO Emerging Writer Prize

“Alison Taylor’s debut novel is a riveting exploration of two tough women, a mother and a daughter, on a separate but similar journey, to figure out who they want to be and how to love each other again.” — —Zoe Whittall, author of The Best Kind of People, Scotiabank Giller Finalist

“A debut novel that jumps off the page, Aftershock is a wonderfully fresh and contemporary story about the ways that modern life tests the bonds between a mother and daughter. I was completely hooked from the start.” — —Liz Renzetti, author of Based on a True Story

“Aftershock is a sharp, cinematic portrait of a parent and child on parallel journeys of self-discovery, through the lows of addiction and the highs of young queer love. The skillful depiction of these two characters, and the failure of empathetic understanding between them, reminds us that what we see of others--even the people we think we know best--is the thinnest layer of ice over an ocean, leagues-deep.” ” — —Kim Fu, author of The Lost Girls of Camp Forevermore