coming fall 2026 from ecw press
For fans of Claire Keegan’s Small Things Like These and Karen Joy Fowler’s We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves comes this unforgettable and fiercely compassionate novel.
Immediately upon his release from a 25-year prison sentence, former veterinarian Trevor Westmore gets his first surprise as a free man: a guard gives him a German shepherd puppy. While Trevor anxiously tries to build a new life, his dog Libby provides the routine and responsibility he needs to navigate his re-entry into society.
All Trevor wants is to earn a living, to stay out of trouble, and to be left alone — until he meets and falls for local veterinarian Laura Fenway. But they both have their secrets. When she learns the truth of Trevor’s past will she consider a future together? And when he discovers the lengths she’ll go to rescue dogs, will he jeopardize his long-awaited freedom?
Weaving together major environmental and political issues of the mid- to late-20th century that remain urgent today, Dog Days of Planet Earth asks what we’re willing to risk for our personal convictions in a world where powerful and unjust forces often oppose them.
Winner of the 2022 Alberta Book Award for fiction
Winner of the 2020 Guernica Prize for Literary Fiction
The Shade Tree is a searing exploration of racial injustice set against the backdrop of some of America’s most turbulent historical events. The lives of two white sisters and a black midwife are inextricably linked through a series of haunting tragedies, and the characters must make life-changing decisions about where their loyalties lie: with their biological families or with a greater moral cause. From a Florida orange grove to the seat of power in Washington, DC, during the height of the civil rights movement, The Shade Tree tells a sweeping yet intimate story of racial discrimination and the human hunger for justice.
Finalist for the Georges Bugnet Award for Fiction
Finalist for the Alberta Readers’ Choice Award
When Marie MacPherson, a mother of two, finds herself unexpectedly pregnant at thirty-nine, she feels guilty. Her best friend, Elizabeth, has never been able to conceive, despite years of fertility treatments. Marie’s dilemma is further complicated when she becomes convinced something is wrong with her baby. She then enters the world of genetic testing and is entirely unprepared for the decision that lies ahead.
Intertwined throughout the novel is the story of Margaret, who gave birth to a daughter with Down syndrome in 1947, when such infants were defined as “unfinished” children. As the novel shifts back and forth through the decades, the lives of the three women converge, and the story speeds to an unexpected conclusion.
With skill and poise, debut novelist Theresa Shea dramatically explores society’s changing views of Down syndrome over the past sixty years. The story offers an unflinching and compassionate history of the treatment of people with Down syndrome and their struggle for basic human rights. Ultimately, The Unfinished Child is an unforgettable and inspiring tale about the mysterious and complex bonds of family, friendship, and motherhood.