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Growing up in the Fiji Islands in the late 1960s, Kalyana Mani Seth is an impressionable, plump young girl suited to the meaning of her name: blissful, blessed, the auspicious one. Her mother educates Kalyana about her Indian heritage, vividly telling tales of mischievous Krishna and powerful Mother Kali, and recounting her grandparents’ migration to the tiny, British colony.

Growing up in the shadow of a famous mother, Clara has never felt good about her body. Now, at sixteen, she has an unhealthy obsession with healthy eating. After a social media disaster, she decides to escape for the summer to Paris to stay with her estranged dad and her six-year-old brother, Alastair, who is on the autism spectrum. Charged with his care, Clara and Alastair set out to explore the city. Paris, and a handsome young French baker, teaches Clara about first love, and a new love of food.

That Summer in Franklin explores the lives of Hannah Norcroft and Colleen Pinser, and the trauma and heartbreak of dealing with parents affected by dementia and alcoholism.

Behind each tightly locked apartment door at rundown 64 Wilnut Street lie the hidden stories of the inhabitants. There is David, who tries to talk to his father's ghost, and Jennifer, who flirts with men she does not want. Asim, who faces hatred directed against his Muslim family, and Allie, who spends the night on suicide watch over her depressed mother. These intimate stories reveal the troubles and hopes of thirteen teenagers as they struggle to turn obstacles into opportunities and make their way in the larger world.

In the late 1960s Penny is the youngest of four kids, known on her street as the girl with the mean brothers. She spends all year looking forward to her summers spent at Go Home Lake, where she passes the days in a soaked bathing suit, catching frogs, and getting her daily fill of fresh air. Yet Penny's summers are far from pleasant. Her father’s weekend visits to the cottage are sporadic, and her brothers prey on her innocence in every way, while her mother offers little sympathy. But Penny holds onto a secret ambition – she’s going to be a real cowboy.

David’s younger sister Ivy, born with multiple disabilities, needs constant attention. She may be eleven years old, but in many ways she’s still a baby. She embarrasses him in public. She takes all of their parents’ focus, to the point where David wonders if they see him as anything more than a helper for Ivy. But despite it all, he loves her. The summer days are following their usual pattern of taking care of his sister, doing chores, and trips to the cottage. The one exception is Hannah, the new girl across the street. Hannah makes David feel anything but routine.

A single mother. An abandoned farmhouse. An epic battle with the northern wilderness. Broke and desperate, Molly Bannister accepts the ironclad condition laid down in her great-aunt’s will: to receive her inheritance, Molly must spend one year in an abandoned, off-the-grid farmhouse in the remote backwoods of northern Alberta. If she does, she will be able to sell the farm and fund her four-year-old daughter’s badly needed medical treatment. With grim determination, Molly teaches herself basic homesteading skills.

A daughter’s search for her mother reveals her family’s past in a Japanese internment camp during the Second World War. Lily Takemitsu goes missing from her home in Toronto one luminous summer morning in the mid-1980s. Her daughter, Rita, knows her mother has a history of dissociation and memory problems, which have led her to wander off before. But never has she stayed away so long. Unconvinced the police are taking the case seriously, Rita begins to carry out her own investigation.

When her mom is diagnosed with terminal cancer, Jayce searches for her estranged father, hoping he can fix everything. Jayce Loewen has had to take on a lot of responsibility over the years. Her single mom works two jobs and long hours, leaving Jayce in charge of her four-year-old sister most of the time. When her mom is diagnosed with cancer, Jayce decides to track down her long-absent father in the hope that he will be able to make everything okay again. Looking for her dad was one thing, but when she actually finds him, Jayce is in for a real shock.

From the author of the bestselling Jalna series. Shaw Manifold is a born forester, of hardy stock. A fatherless boy of nine, he was brought up in the rugged environment of his grandfather’s farm, a lonely youngster in the midst of callous elders. His only ally was his mother, Cristabel, whose work removed her to a distant city.