Behind You by Catherine Hernandez

Catherine Hernandez's most gripping and affecting novel yet,Behind Youis inspired by a horrifying chapter in Canadian history and follows fictional characters terrorized by a fictional perpetrator.

Alma is a Filipina woman who works as a film editor for a cheesy True Crime series featuring the most notorious killers of the 20th century calledInfamous. On the surface she seems to live a good life with her wife Nira and teenage son, Mateo. But there is so much left unsaid.

It's not untilInfamous' last episode features the Scarborough Stalker that she remembers coming of age while the serial rapist and killer was attacking women and girls in Scarborough in the late 80s and early 90s.

What unfolds are two storylines: In the past, young Alma watches an entire city become consumed with a manhunt for an elusive, terrifying suspect, while she herself is in jeopardy from closer corners. In the present, adult Alma must come to terms with her own ideas of consent to stop her son's dangerous behaviour toward his girlfriend.

Weaving back and forth in time,Behind You, is a moving story of one girl's resilience into adulthood and a chilling portrayal of the insidiousness if rape culture. It daringly turns the Whodunit genre on its head by asking the question "Who hasn't done it?" As in, who has not been complicit in sexual harm?(From HarperAvenue)

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Catherine Hernandez is a Canadian writer, author and playwright. Her 2017 novel, Scarborough, was a shortlisted finalist for the 2017 Toronto Book Award, the 2018 Trillium Book Award, the 2018 Edmund White Award and was on Canada Reads 2022 defended by actress Malia Baker. Scarborough was also adapted to screen as a feature film and premiered at TIFF in 2021.Her other books includeThe Story of Us,Crosshairsand the children's booksI Promise,M is for MustacheandWhere Do Your Feelings Live?.

Interviews with Catherine Hernandez

Q22:49Catherine Hernandez on writing a book that feels like love

Award-winning author Catherine Hernandez (Scarborough) on writing a book that feels like love, being a conduit for her ancestors and the eye-opening research that went into her latest novel, The Story of Us.

Other books by Catherine Hernandez