Iain Reid’s Internationally Bestselling novel, WE SPREAD, has been receiving fabulous press and praise that we are beyond thrilled to share!
Not only was WE SPREAD named one of the Best Audiobooks of 2022 by The New York Times and one of the Best Canadian Fiction Novels of 2022 by CBC Books, but it has continued to garner non stop attention and praise even a year after its publication! Check out a few of these below:
- WE SPREAD on NPR’s Best Books of 2022 Roundup
- Indigo named WE SPREAD as one of it’s Top Ten Books for 2022
- The Guardian gave a tremendous review, saying WE SPREAD is a “fine piece of weird fiction.”
- WE SPREAD was also reviewed by Publishers Weekly saying, “[An] exquisite novel of psychological suspense.”
- Criminal Element reviewed WE SPREAD and said, “[A] pressure cooker of anxiety that Iain Reid deftly and heartbreakingly conveys with spare prose that both welcomes and rewards re-reading.”
- The paperback edition of WE SPREAD is set to hit shelves on May 30, 2023 and was already longlisted for Canada Reads!
- The Toronto Star had nothing but praise for WE SPREAD and Iain Reid’s talent in their review saying, “…to Reid’s credit that the novel never feels lugubrious or preachy. To the contrary, its technical approach — the prose is laid out in short, declarative sentences practically devoid of subordinate clauses or other ornament —”
About the book:
Penny, an artist, has lived in the same apartment for decades, surrounded by the artifacts and keepsakes of her long life. She is resigned to the mundane rituals of old age, until things start to slip. Before her longtime partner passed away years earlier, provisions were made for a room in a unique long-term care residence, where Penny finds herself after one too many “incidents.”
Initially, surrounded by peers, conversing, eating, sleeping, looking out at the beautiful woods that surround the house, all is well. She even begins to paint again. But as the days start to blur together, Penny—with a growing sense of unrest and distrust—starts to lose her grip on the passage of time and on her place in the world. Is she succumbing to the subtly destructive effects of aging or is she an unknowing participant in something more unsettling?
At once compassionate and uncanny, told in spare, hypnotic prose, Iain Reid’s novel explores questions of conformity, art, productivity, relationships, and what, ultimately, it means to grow old.
Iain is represented by Samantha Haywood.