SWARM

Lauren Carter's fabulous debut novel is set in the not too distant future, a familiar world fifteen paces in the wrong direction from today's global economic crisis, and explores the mistakes of youth and romance, and a woman's craving for a child in the face of scarcity.

Having run from their violent past, Sandy, Marvin and Thompson live a lonely existence fishing, farming and beekeeping on a rural island. When the footprints of a thieving child start appearing in their garden, the family is forced into deciding whether to try to help her or not. Sandy's interest in the girl turns into compulsion. She names her Melissa and begins confessing to her the story of her youth in a city plagued by power outages, unemployment and violent protests. There, she met Marvin and joined his terrorist cause, initiating a chain of events that led to tragic and life-altering consequences. Swarm is a novel about growing up in a future of shrinking options and coming to terms with the regrettable choices that make us who we are. And in the face of the constant fight to carve out an existence for oneself, still hoping, wishing, dreaming for something as simple as being a mother. For readers of: Orpheus Lost by Janette Turner Hospital, Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro, The Road by Cormac McCarthy, and The Children of Men by PD James. Lauren Carter's poetry and fiction have appeared in Grain, Prairie Fire, Descant, and several other literary journals and anthologies. Longlisted for the ReLit Award, she's also been a finalist for THIS Magazine's Great Canadian Literary Hunt and the Malahat Review's Far Horizons Award for Short Fiction and has earned scholarships from the Writers Trust of Canada and the Summer Literary Seminars. Her nonfiction has appeared in numerous publications including: National Geographic Traveler, Now Magazine, the Globe and Mail, Canadian Geographic. She holds an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from the University of Guelph, and teaches writing at Georgian College and Lakehead University. Carter is already at work on her next novel.