It’s no secret that Sylvia is a little crazy. People have thought so ever since she first came to town when she was a teenager. But outside her own family, no one knows the depth of her mental illness. For her daughter, Mercy, Sylvia’s illness is at once a source of agony and fascination.

Mercy’s mother is absent from her life on several occasions. First, she is taken away to a mental hospital for treatment. Later, on a summer night in the early 1980s, Sylvia disappears entirely, never to be seen again. Her absence is pivotal in Mercy’s life.

Populated by an array of compelling characters the mad mother, the lovelorn father, the crossdressing younger brother, the quirky grandmother Love Object is a gripping account of the coming-of-age of a teenage girl in rural Ontario in the 1980s.

Sally Cooper is the author of two novels; Love Object and Tell Everything. Her third novel is forthcoming in 2018. She has been published in journals such as CNQ, Grain, White Wall Review, Event, and the Feathertale Review. She is a Senior Editor at Hamilton Review of Books and has an MA in Canadian & Commonwealth Literature from the University of Guelph and she taught English and writing at Humber College for 23 years, and also was a mentor for the Humber School for Writers correspondence program. She lives in Hamilton, Ontario. Smells Like Heaven is her first short fiction collection.

Sally Cooper's profile page

"Here is a first novel of great sensitivity...readers will be haunted by its pain and power."

The Leader Post

"(Sally Cooper's) skill is evident in her first novel, beginnning with its title, Love Object, the opening key to the story's final cathartic punch."

Globe and Mail

"...a powerful debut for Sally Cooper. She clearly is a fearless writer, not afraid to make us squirm as she lays out stark details that expose and enrich her characters."

Ottawa Citizen

"beautifully, sometimes brilliantly rendered."

Quill and Quire