The Certainties

(Paperback)

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FINALIST FOR THE ETHEL WILSON FICTION PRIZE A vivid, moving novel reminiscent of Anthony Doerr and Michael Ondaatje, about the entwined fates of two very different refugees. In 1940, as the shadow of war lengthens over Europe, three mysterious travelers enter a village in Spain. They have the appearance of Parisian intellectuals, but the trio of two men and a woman are starving and exhausted from crossing illegally through the Pyrenees. Their story, told over a period of 48 tense hours, is narrated by one of the men, who slowly accepts his unthinkable fate. In a voice despairing and elegant, he calmly considers what he should do, and weighs what any one life means. As he does so, his attention is caught by a five-year-old named Pia who wanders near his cafe table. To Pia he begins to address all that he thinks and feels in his final hours--envisioning a rich future life for her that both reflects and contrasts with his own. Meanwhile, in the 1980s, a woman named Pia seeks solitude on a remote island in the Atlantic, where she works at an inn and reflects on her chaotic childhood. As Pia's story begins, a raging storm engulfs the island and a boat flounders offshore. Pia and her fellow islanders rush to help--and past and present calamities collide. By turns elegiac and heart-pounding, a love letter in the guise of a song of despair, The Certainties is a moving and transformative blend of historical and speculative fiction--a novel that shows us what it means to bear witness, and to attend to those who seek refuge, past and present.

Reviews

[A]n intelligent and reflective response to the mysterious and strangely consoling nature of the ordinary. . . . Aislinn Hunter makes the sensory moment meld, almost seamlessly, into the cerebral. . . . Deeply intelligent, finely wrought, this is a novel that deserves to be widely read. And reread. The Ormsby Review

Aislinn Hunter masterfully combines historical and speculative fiction . . . [Hunter] poses weighty, existential questions. Her sensitive, elegant novel portrays historical eras where the good, the enduring, and the worthwhile can vanish, with just a signature on a form. . . . Atmospheric and heady, The Certainties presents a skilled interweaving of subjectslove, loss, memory, personal connectionsin settings where, to paraphrase the narrator, theres so little left its almost not worth measuring. Lovely albeit sad, the elegiac story holds up a small, flickering light for benighted times. The Vancouver Sun

Aislinn Hunters latest outing is a study in despairand in the exquisite, heartbreaking beauty of being alive. . . . The Certainties is a story of loss, both personal and political, shot through with the ordinary wonders of life: the sea, the fresh market olives, the everyday gestures of human kindness. The book is dedicated to Hunters late husband, who recently passed away. That grief no doubt contributes to the haunted feel of this story. And to its emotional core: love. The Toronto Star

The Certainties is a wonderful mystery, a masterful piece of storytelling that will grip you the first time you read it, and a work of careful art that will reward you when you read it again. Aislinn Hunter has a novelists eye for narrative and a poets ear for detail, and she has brought those gifts together in this novel of slow and uncompromising power. In these pages, the very idea of bearing witness is given its rightful place. Jon McGregor, Man Booker Prizenominated author of Reservoir 13, and winner of the Costa Novel Award

I loved The Certainties. What an elegant, moving book . . . Its deeply aesthetically enjoyable, page by page, and will stay with me. Im already recommending it to friends as my new favourite novel. Connie Gault, Giller-longlisted author of A Beauty

Praise for Aislinn Hunters novelThe World Before Us

A complex, subtle, and utterly haunting meditation on memory, history, and mortality. This book is magnificent. Emily St. John Mandel

A novel of considerable beauty . . . haunting and haunted. The Globe and Mail

[Hunter] writes with crispness, precision and a restrained nod to the poetic . . . a sensitive and melancholy meditation on life, death and the potency of the past. . . . A work of great power. The Guardian (UK)

Hypnotically beautiful. Chicago Tribune

Strange and absorbing. . . . [A] richly imagined novel. . . . I relished her book. Penelope Lively, The New York Times Book Review

Author Bio

AISLINN HUNTER is an award-winning novelist and poet and the author of seven highly acclaimed books including the novel The World Before Us, which was a New York Times Editor's Choice, a Guardian and NPR "Book of the Year," and winner of the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize. Her work has been adapted into music, dance, art, and film forms--including a feature film based on her novel Stay, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. Hunter holds degrees in Creative Writing, Art History, Writing and Cultural Politics, and English Literature. In 2018 she served as a Canadian War Artist working with Canadian and NATO forces. She teaches creative writing and lives in Vancouver, BC.