What Dreams May Come
with Sara Peters and Mona Awad
Hosted by David Currie
Awad’s prose remains as biting as ever, skillfully oscillating between the lyrical and the absurd. Readers need not be familiar with Bunny to appreciate this outing, though fans will relish the deepened mythology and twisted callbacks. This bold satire breaks exciting new ground in the Bunny universe.
Join us for a conversation with Sara Peters and Mona Awad, two acclaimed authors who harness imaginative prose to explore the comic and sinister sides of our surreal lives.
Mother of God by Sara Peters is a singular story of love and dread. Marlene calls herself a psychic wound healer, but really, her paranormal abilities are restricted to visions. In fact, they’re restricted to visions of just one person: her mother, Darlene. After years of estrangement, Marlene receives a message asking her to come home to small-town Nova Scotia. Figures from the past materialize as reality’s thin membrane begins to give way, and Marlene is forced to confront the incomprehensible as she is sent down a path of terrors, to the very end of human feeling, to the very end of her mind.
We Love You, Bunny by Mona Awad, is both a prequel and a sequel, and an unabashedly wild and totally complete stand-alone novel. When We Love You, Bunny opens, Sam has just published her first novel to critical acclaim. But at a New England stop on her book tour, her one-time frenemies, furious at the way they’ve been portrayed, kidnap her. Now a captive audience, it’s her (and our) turn to hear the Bunnies’ side of the story. One by one, they take turns holding the axe, and recount the birth throes of their unholy alliance, their discovery of their unusual creative powers—and the phantasmagoric adventure of conjuring their first creation. With a bound and gagged Sam, we embark on a wickedly intoxicating journey into the heart of dark academia: a fairy-tale slasher that explores the wonder and horror of creation itself.
Books are available from our friends at Perfect Books.
The Ottawa International Writers Festival is supported by generous individuals like you. Please consider subscribing to our newsletter and making a donation to support our programming and children’s literacy initiatives.