Heartache and Other Natural Shocks

A page-turning young-adult novel told from the alternating voices of two witty, sharp-edged teenage girls who compete for a role in the school production of Hamlet and for the same local bad boy, in a game of deception, betrayal, and sword play.

When fifteen-year-old Julia Epstein and her Anglophone family flee Montreal in October 1970, she struggles to adjust to a new life in the suburban wasteland of North York, Toronto. Next door lives Carla Cabrielli, who works her "assets" and knows ho...