Hearts may freeze or thaw, but love never dies.

In December 2013, an ice storm buries Toronto as realtor Laura Keys prepares to sell a one-of-a-kind house on behalf of its comatose owner. Haunting Laura, and longing to be invited in, is a mysterious teenage girl with a Scottish terrier tucked into her coat.

As Laura readies the house for showing, she learns more about its owner, Edna “Eddie” Ferguson. Leading up to the Great Snowstorm of 1944, Eddie, a brickmaker, enters into a passionate yet ill-fated affair with her boss’s daughter. While uncovering the past, Laura navigates both the death of her mother and a troubled marriage straining under the weight of her infertility.

Across two paralyzing winter storms, set nearly seventy years apart and connected by a house and a murder, Semi-Detached contends with living after loss, love, and the meaning of home.

Insightful and evocative, emotionally intelligent and propulsive, this is a novel from a writer at the top of her game.

Elizabeth Ruth’s novels are: Semi-Detached, Matadora, Smoke, and Ten Good Seconds of Silence. Her debut poetry collection is, This Report is Strictly Confidential. Elizabeth’s work has been recognized by the Writers’ Trust of Canada Fiction Prize, City of Toronto Book Award, Amazon.ca Best First Novel Award, and One Book One Community. CBC named her “One of the Ten Canadian Women Writers You Must Read.” Elizabeth is also the author of a novella for adult literacy learners, Love You To Death and the editor of Bent On Writing: Contemporary Queer Tales.

Find Elizabeth on Instagram at elizabethruthauthor and on her website: elizabethruth.com  

Elizabeth Ruth's profile page

“If you’re looking for a novel that reads like an old-fashioned love story, but that also features some decidedly modern elements (including the fact that this is a dual-timeline queer romance), this will definitely be your kind of book.”

Ann Douglas, <em>The Honest Talk</em>

“Semi-Detached will cast a spell over you. Elizabeth Ruth has crafted a beautiful and tender tale of the shelters we all need to house our love and our yearning. Sheer magic and a joy to read.”

Lynne Kutsukake, author of <i>The Translation of Love</i>

"Semi-Detached is elegantly constructed and often beautifully written."

Quill & Quire

“Part love story, part ghost story, part murder mystery — Elizabeth Ruth’s Semi-Detached is all heart. Fiercely compelling and beautifully nuanced. A modern novel for the ages. Just brilliant.”

Helen Humphreys, author of <i>Leaving Earth</i> and <i>Rabbit Foot Bill</i>

“In a city whose working-class history has been largely obliterated by urban change, Semi-Detached is a novel about what endures.”

Spacing