$19.95 CAD

What is Going to Happen Next

Karen Hofmann 978-1-988732-06-0 | 344 Pages September, 2017 Accolades!, Ebook, Fiction

Also available as an ebook from

About this book

  • Winner of the Book Design Award at the 2018 Alberta Book Publishing Awards!

Karen Hofmann’s empathetic and cathartic novel, What is Going to Happen Next, pieces together the lives of five members of the Lund family following their enforced dispersal after the death of the father and the hospitalization of the mother in the remote West Coast community of Butterfly Lake. It explores their self-doubts and aspirations in the ways they cope with their separation and reunion through their work and personal relationships, and reveals the ways in which their past is filtered through memory and desire. It also skillfully exposes a Vancouver class system from the perspectives of diverse socio-economic conditions and lifestyles.

What is Going to Happen Next is character-driven and well-wrought, with a tenderness that propels the reader forward alongside the Lunds who are learning to fuse together as a chosen family.

Reviews

"An incisive and deeply satisfying novel about the muscle memory of
the human heart."

~ Sarah Mian, author of When the Saints

“Karen Hofmann’s What is Going to Happen Next is not another gloomy Can-Lit family saga but a familiar portrait of our neighbours and friends—maybe of ourselves—weathering the effects of far distant adversity with the same halting, human grace we all share.”

~ Jennifer Quist, author of Sistering

“A compassionate and insightful novel about siblings and the bonds they forge. Hofmann interweaves their stories with assurance, rich detail, and heart.”

~ Alice Zorn, author of Five Roses

"It’s a novel that’s as original as it is ambitious, and it works, resulting in an all-engrossing visceral reading experience, and I’m recommending it to everyone." full review

~ Kerry Clare, Pickle Me This

"The characters as so unique from one another, each with a distinct voice and personality.... I would highly recommend this wonderful piece of Canadian fiction." full review

~ Jaaron Collins, Worn Pages and Ink

"To say that this novel is a delight is an understatement. The characters live and breathe."

~ Marilyn Brown, The Connector

"As a family saga, the novel is empathetic, compassionate, and expertly paced." full review

~ Brenda Johnston, Canadian Literature