Cosmopolitan and curious seventeen-year-old Chrysler Wong suffers from a debilitating fear brought on by belief in a family curse. Three of her siblings have died after turning eighteen and venturing beyond the borders of their tiny rural Alberta town, and the fourth, her favourite, has recently left and is incommunicado. Is she destined to share their fate – or worse, doomed to live a circumscribed life?

MELANIE MAH was born in Rocky Mountain House, Alberta, and currently resides in Toronto. The Sweetest One is her first novel.

Melanie Mah's profile page

• Winner, Trillium Book Award

“[The Sweetest One] captivated me … Mah’s writing never lets the reader down right to the last page.”

The Sun-Times

“With lines and imagery that are as unique as they are beautiful, Melanie Mah has crafted a story of an under-told Canadian experience with deft, humour and so much grit. The Sweetest One introduces us to the Wongs, a tragic Chinese-Canadian family in small town Alberta layered with isolation, anxiety, language and loss. Each member, even as they become absent, is a presence so huge you cannot help but love them. Mah’s work is exciting and exacting and precisely what was missing from CanLit.”

Trillium Book Award Jury Citation