Grace River is a smelter town in the interior of B.C. where most people who live there are born and bred, and everyone is either employed by AXIS or knows someone who is. Not much ever changes in Grace River. The days begin at Nick’s Diner and end at the Steelworkers bar. When a young environmentalist arrives in town to investigate toxin levels in the river, the locals are forced to start looking honestly at their lives, their pasts and their uncertain futures.

A powerful and courageous story told from the perspective of four friends, Grace River explores the reasons why people continue to stay in harmful situations and asks us to think about the damage we all do, not only to the environment, but also to the ones we love the most.

Born in Ottawa to a hippie mother and a poet father, Rebecca Hendry moved to a new city or town across Canada every year until she was eleven, when she settled on the Sunshine Coast in BC. Her first novel, Grace River, was published by Brindle and Glass in 2009, and her short fiction has appeared in the Dalhousie Review, Wascana Review, Event, Windsor Review, and other literary journals. She lives in Gibsons, BC, with her two children.

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