From Scotiabank Giller Prize finalist Alix Ohlin comes an intimate and compelling novel of motherhood, love, a search for belonging, and what it means to be a sister.
All her life, Lark Brossard felt invisible, overshadowed by the people around her: first by her temperamental mother; then by her sister, Robin, a brilliant pianist as wild as the animals she loves; and finally by Lawrence Wheelock, a filmmaker who is both Lark’s employer and her occasional lover. When Wheelock denies her what she longs for most — a child — Lark is forced to re-examine a life marked by unrealized ambitions and thwarted desires. As she takes charge of her destiny, Lark comes to rely on Robin in ways she never could have imagined.
In this meditation on motherhood, sisterhood, desire, and self-knowledge, Alix Ohlin traces the rich and complex path towards fulfillment as an artist and as a human being.
From Scotiabank Giller Prize finalist Alix Ohlin comes an intimate and compelling novel of motherhood, love, a search for belonging, and what it means to be a sister.
All her life, Lark Brossard felt invisible, overshadowed by the people around her: first by her temperamental mother; then by her sister, Robin, a brilliant pianist as wild as the animals she loves; and finally by Lawrence Wheelock, a filmmaker who is both Lark’s employer and her occasional lover. When Wheelock denies her what she longs for most — a child — Lark is forced to re-examine a life marked by unrealized ambitions and thwarted desires. As she takes charge of her destiny, Lark comes to rely on Robin in ways she never could have imagined.
In this meditation on motherhood, sisterhood, desire, and self-knowledge, Alix Ohlin traces the rich and complex path towards fulfillment as an artist and as a human being.
| Published By | House of Anansi Press Inc — Jun 4, 2019 |
| Specifications | 256 pages | 6 in x 9 in |
| Keywords | identity; mental illness; sisters; intimate storytelling; strong female characters; dance; film editing; family dynamics; boarding school; sisterhood; narcissism; coming of age; piano prodigy; Julliard; Canlit; literary fiction; Finalist; Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize; Finalist; Scotiabank Giller Prize; Finalist; Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize; A Globe and Mail Book of the Year; A CBC Book of the Year; Zadie Smith; Claire Messud; Montreal; |
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Excerpt Guide |
| Written By |
ALIX OHLIN is the author of six books, including the novels Inside and Dual Citizens, which were both finalists for the Scotiabank Giller Prize and the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, Tin House, Best American Short Stories, and many other publications. Born and raised in Montreal, she lives in Vancouver, where she chairs the creative writing program at the University of British Columbia. |
| Written By |
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ALIX OHLIN is the author of six books, including the novels Inside and Dual Citizens, which were both finalists for the Scotiabank Giller Prize and the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, Tin House, Best American Short Stories, and many other publications. Born and raised in Montreal, she lives in Vancouver, where she chairs the creative writing program at the University of British Columbia. |
Runner-up, Scotiabank Giller Prize, 2019
Runner-up, Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize, 2019
Commended, A CBC Book of the Year, 2019
Commended, A Globe and Mail Book of the Year, 2019
Touching . . . Dual Citizens has a lot in common with Zadie Smith’s Swing Time and Claire Messud’s The Burning Girl.
” —Wall Street Journal“Fascinating and unexpected.” —Chatelaine
“With supreme confidence, Ohlin’s quicksilver prose and brilliant characterization at once seize and pull the reader into the wide-ranging and complex world of half-sisters Robin and Lark as they struggle with questions of identity, the slow burn of mental illness, and the need to leave your mark on the world. Her characters are as complex and real as your own dearest loved ones. Dual Citizens is a compulsively readable novel about family, sisterhood, and those uncontrollable forces that drive and haunt us.” —Rogers Writers’Trust Fiction Prize Jury Citation
“Evocative … Traces [its] characters over long arcs of time and place with equal amounts grace and wit.” —Vogue
“If storytellers seduce not just with the tale but how they tell it, then Ohlin is exemplary.” —Toronto Star
“Luminous … Ohlin’s touching, beautifully crafted story traces the unbreakable bond holding the sisters together, even when miles apart, through many changes.” —Booklist
“Ohlin’s prose and insight are luminous … As with her prior novel, Inside, Ohlin is adroit at articulating her characters’ internal dialogues, and it becomes apparent to the reader as it does to both women that they are at their most harmonious when connected to each other.” —Shelf Awareness
“Alix Ohlin’s gorgeously understated writing brings her characters to vivid, brilliant life, especially fiercely loyal and socially awkward Lark, who felt like someone we’d love to be friends with.” —Apple Books Canada
“I hesitate to call Dual Citizens Alix Ohlin’s best book — because her previous ones are among my favourite recent works of fiction — but it’s perhaps her most entrancing. A spellbinding fever dream of a tale that will leave you forever changed, and will surely earn Ohlin a place among the greatest writers of our generation. I loved it.” —Joanna Rakoff, author of My Salinger Year
“This novel sneaks up on you the way life does — full of chance and yearning. It’s a precise, subtle, sad, and graceful story about how we care for each other, and how we try to, and how we fail.” —Jia Tolentino, author of Trick Mirror
“Ohlin’s story of sisters wraps its tendrils deep as any family. Dual Citizens leads a reader through landscapes of compassion and crisis in this deeply felt, iridescent novel of the spells and surprises a sibling creates.” —Samantha Hunt, author of The Dark Dark
“There’s so much life in this novel! Alix Ohlin is such an effortless, absorbing stylist, and with Dual Citizens she has given us a story about family and sacrifice that will give readers a great deal to consider. It’s a wonderful book that you will want to share.” —Owen King, author of Double Feature
For longtime admirers of Alix Ohlin’s fiction, the psychological complexity and keen observations in this novel will come as no surprise. In Dual Citizens, Ohlin examines the conflicting desires of two sisters from Montreal with a riveting precision reminiscent of fellow Montreal native Mavis Gallant. However, unlike Gallant’s Montreal girls, Ohlin’s are not of a generation ‘trained to be good and patient’ but to follow their ambitions. A lifelong witness to one’s shifting longings, this wise and luminous novel shows, is a sibling.
” —Idra Novey, author of Those Who Knew“Alix Ohlin is a thrilling and singular writer who intimately captures and celebrates a lifetime of desires, disappointments, and everyday triumphs in these two sisters’ lives. I couldn’t stop thinking about it: Dual Citizens will take up residency in your mind and heart for quite some time.” —Jennifer Gilmore, author of The Mothers