ACCUSATION

In the tradition of the Pulitzer Prize winning Doubt: A Parable, and partly set in the Ethiopian terrain of Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese.

Accusation by Catherine Bush explores how charges of wrongdoing have a life of their own that cannot be extinguished. Perhaps trusting our instincts is all we have when it comes to knowing other people. But trust is fragile, can be misguided, and other people make mistakes, or are not what they seem. Sara Wheeler, a journalist from Toronto, has been the victim of a false accusation in her past and was permanently damaged by it and by her then lover's lack of support, just at a time in her life when she needed him the most. So when she meets the charismatic idealist Raymond Renaud, founder of a wildly successful children's circus from Ethiopia, she desperately wants to believe in his innocence when an ugly story breaks from performers fleeing the circus and seeking asylum in Australia. And so begins Sara's suspenseful globe-trotting investigation, spurred by her fateful decision to report on the evolving story for the newspaper back home as she traces its path between Canada, Ethiopia, and Australia. Accusation follows a web of lives that intersect with life-altering consequence. While Sara discovers the most disturbing truth of all: that acting with the best of intentions can still lead to disaster. One of Canada's most highly regarded novelists, Catherine Bush is the author of three previous novels, most recently Claire's Head (2004), short-listed for Ontario's Trillium Award. Her second novel, The Rules of Engagement (2000), a Canadian national bestseller, was published internationally, shortlisted for the City of Toronto Book Award, and chosen as a New York Times Notable Book and a Best Book of the Year by the LA Times and the Globe and Mail. Her first novel, Minus Time (HarperCollins, 1993), was also published internationally. She has written non-fiction for a variety of publications, including The Globe and Mail and The New York Times Magazine, been the recipient of a variety of writing fellowships and writer-in-residence positions, and taught in writing programs including the low-residency MFA at the University of British Columbia, and those of Concordia University and the University of Florida. She is currently the Coordinator of the Creative Writing MFA at the University of Guelph. She has written about and was involved in the making of a documentary about the actual Circus Ethiopia. Catherine Bush lives in Toronto and is at work on a new novel