The Most Cunning Heart

In the early 1990s, Caitlin Maharg, grieving the loss of her parents, leaves everything she knows in Canada for Northern Ireland to pursue her love of poetry while living in a cottage by the Irish Sea. Feeling like a child again in a distant land still affected by the Troubles, she is haunted by the secrets her parentsdeaths unearthed. In her longing for emotional closeness, she befriends Andy Evans, a well-known poet with a roguish charm. Their attraction soon leads to a love affair. Flouting the paisley headscarf of respectability, she plunges into a relationship that gives her an entry to the literary world, but at a price. Filled with insights into grief, longing and creativity,The Most Cunning Heartis a novel about how a quiet heroine learns to navigate deception, love and loss. (From Palimpsest Press)

• 66 works of Canadian fiction to watch for in spring 2022
• 40 Canadian books coming out in May we can't wait to read
• How the death of her parents inspired poet Catherine Graham to turn to fiction

Catherine Graham is the author of seven collections of poetry, including the recent ther: An Out-of-Body Lyric, which was shortlisted for the 2021 Toronto Book Awards. Her debut novel, Quarry, won an Independent Publisher Book Awards gold medal for fiction. Graham lives in Toronto, where she teaches creative writing and leads the Toronto International Festival of Authors Book Club.