Crosshairs

In a terrifyingly familiar near-future, with massive floods that lead to rampant homelessness and devastation, a government-sanctioned regime called the Boots seizes the opportunity to force communities of colour, the disabled and the LGBTQ2S into labour camps in the city of Toronto.

In the shadows, a new hero emerges. After his livelihood and the love of his life are taken away, Kay joins the resistance alongside Bahadur, a transmasculine refugee, and Firuzeh, a headstrong social worker. Guiding them in the use of weapons and close-quarters combat is Beck, a rogue army officer who helps them plan an uprising at a major internationally televised event.

With her signature prose, described by Booklist as "raw yet beautiful, disturbing yet hopeful," Catherine Hernandez creates a vision of the future that is all the more terrifying because it is very possible. A cautionary tale filled with fierce and vibrant characters, Crosshairs explores the universal desire to thrive, to love and to be loved as your true self. (FromHarperAvenue)

Catherine Hernandezis a former theatre professionaland daycare provider from Scarborough, Ont. She is also the author oft he novelScarborough,which is being adapted into a feature film.CBC Books named Hernandez a writer to watch in 2017.

• Why Catherine Hernandez writes
• How Catherine Hernandez's resilient neighbourhood inspired her debut novel
• How Catherine Hernandez opens her heart to find the stories she should tell
• Catherine Hernandez: 2 things you need to learn in order to be a writer
• 60 works of Canadian fiction to watch for in fall 2020
• Catherine Hernandez's latest book is dystopian fiction that feels frighteningly real
• The CBC Books fall 2020 reading list
• The best Canadian fiction of 2020

Why Catherine Hernandez wrote Crosshairs

"For a lot of us people who are part of the queer, trans,Black, Indigenous andpeople of colour community what we were wonderingafter the horrible 2016Orlando nightclubmassacre that claimed 49 beautiful lives was, 'Do we need to get guns to protect ourselves?'

"We already knew that we were unsafe. Being in a visibly queer trans family means that a lot of us don't feel comfortable walking around at night. We don't feel safe with the police presence. A lot of us thought, 'What is the price of fighting back?' and 'What is the price of being passive?'

I truly believe that if we all work hard enough, massacres like that would never, ever happen again. We can see fascism for what it is, name it and end it.- Catherine Hernandez

"In creating the novel, Iwanted to explore that the many ways that fascism manifests and the difficult choices we make in the face of war. What we're seeing now, with fascism rising all over the world, is that there are some very difficult choices we have to make about which side we're going to be on in history.

Read more in her interview with The Next Chapter.

Interviews withCatherine Hernandez

The Next Chapter13:51Catherine Hernandez on her novel Crosshairs

Catherine Hernandez's second novel, Crosshairs, takes place in a chilling dystopian future where a fascist regime seeks to eliminate all those deemed "Other."

Why I Write: Catherine Hernandez

6 years ago

Duration 3:22

In this CBC Books video series, Catherine Hernandez explains why todays Canadian writers need to be aware of anti-oppression and decolonization in order to be successful.

Other books by Catherine Hernandez