The Certainties

“[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 subjects—love, loss, memory, personal connections—in settings where, to paraphrase the narrator, there’s ‘so little left it’s almost not worth measuring.’ Lovely albeit sad, the elegiac story holds up a small, flickering light for benighted times. —The Vancouver Sun “Aislinn Hunter’s latest outing is a study in despair—and 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 Hunter’s 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 novelist’s eye for narrative and a poet’s 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 Prize–nominated author of Reservoir 13, and winner of the Costa Novel Award “I loved The Certainties. What an elegant, moving book . . . It’s deeply aesthetically enjoyable, page by page, and will stay with me. I’m already recommending it to friends as my new favourite novel.” —Connie Gault, Giller-longlisted author of A Beauty   Praise for Aislinn Hunter’s novel The 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