It seems like a dream gig when Daphne gets the job offer—live in Montreal's Underground City for a full year and blog about the experience. The flip side of the city has all the creature comforts. The year will fly by. Except there's a catch. To collect her whopping bonus for sticking it out till day 365, Daphne must agree never to set so much as a toe outside the territory of the Underground City, submitting to an ankle monitor to keep her honest. Even if the conditions are hardcore, she doesn't have much choice. Out of work, and sole provider for a grandmother whose bank account is on life support, Daphne signs on the dotted line. And that's when her life goes into freefall.

Inspired by Daphne, her grandmother comes up with an underground plan of her own, sheltering a family of illegal refugees in her basement. Daphne's initial fury at her grandmother's risky move does an about-face once she meets Chantal, a young runaway holed up in the Underground City, fleeing a threat she refuses to disclose. When Chantal shows up on Daphne's doorstep desperate for protection, Daphne must decide if she's prepared to lay her underground future on the line to rescue a group of virtual strangers from discovery and ruin.

Phyllis Rudin's writing has been published in numerous periodicals including The Massachusetts Review, AGNI, PRISM international, and Prairie Fire. Her short story "Candlepower," which appeared in This Magazine, won its Great Canadian Literary Hunt in 2010. Her first novel, Evie, the Baby and the Wife, a fictionalized account of the Vancouver to Ottawa Abortion Caravan, was published by Inanna Publications in 2014, followed by My True and Complete Adventures as a Wannabe Voyageur, which came out with NeWest Press in 2017. Phyllis Rudin has lived in the US and France, and now makes her home in Montreal where she is engaged in a project to walk every street in the city. Her latest novel, Tucked Away, is coming out in 2022.

Phyllis Rudin's profile page

"At times both heartbreaking and hilarious, Tucked Away offers an intimate and irreverent tour of Montreal, especially its so-called Underground City. In and around it Rudin sets an eclectic cast of characters and weaves their several stories together in a way that is surprising, moving and engaging at every turn. A tour de force!"
—Ann Lambert, author of the Russell and Leduc mystery series.