Surfacing

Stunning writing from Margaret Atwood in this beautiful, multi-faceted meditation on relationships, memory, and personal identity, as an unnamed female narrator travels with friends to an island in the remote Canadian wilderness in search of her father, who has disappeared without a trace. Perfectly paced and tiptoeing around the supernatural, this is my new favourite Atwood.

‰ЫПThere‰ЫЄs nothing I can remember till we reach the border, marked by a sign that says BIENVENUE on one side and WELCOME on the other. The sign has bullet holes in it, rusting red around the edges. It always did, in the fall the hunters use it for target practice; no matter how many times they replace it or paint it the bullet holes reappear, as though they aren‰ЫЄt put there but grow by a kind of inner logic or infection, like mould or boils. Joe wants to film the sign but David says ‰ЫчNaaa, what for?‰ЫЄ‰Ыќ