A novel about the unpredictability of parenthood, a journey into the unchartered territory that is having a child, especially when that child turns out to be different.

Rose Drury has just learned that her son, Roger, is below average—at the third-percentile rank, according to the pediatrician. Co-parenting with her partner, Lucy, in a 1980s Calgary only just starting to accept same-sex relationships, Rose works to unearth her own desires from the quagmire of directives from others, while she grapples with the implications of Roger's developmental delays.

Though Rose herself is a developmental psychologist and knows all of the "right" answers and "correct" things to do, she finds that she is all too human, struggling with the many social forces that converge on a mother of a kid who is different. With humour and desperation in equal measure, Rose reviews her life history for the definitive moment that could explain how she and her son got to this point.

In this sparkling and empathetic novel, Marion Douglas digs into a young mother's uncertainty, fear, and hard-won wisdom as she and her son—an odd and lovable giant of unpredictability—forge a path forward.

Marion Douglas grew up on a farm in southern Ontario, close to a very small place called Lakelet and its lake. She moved west in 1981, settling in Calgary in 1986 and that is where she stayed. At first she thought Alberta was short on trees, but now she loves the landscape. Her children grew up and moved to Montreal and Vancouver so she has good reasons to shuttle around the country, especially now that she has a very lovable grandson. The Game of Giants is her fifth novel.

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