Wild Hope by Joan Thomas

Isla and Jake are a couple drifting apart. She is a chef and co-owner of a farm-to-table restaurant on the brink of closing; he is a visual artist tormented by the oil-and-gas legacy of his late father. A looming figure in both their lives is Reg Bevaqua, Jake's childhood friend-turned-enemy, turned bottled-water baron.

Reg is a demanding regular at Isla's restaurant and a man with a seething resentment toward Jake. With good reason, the feeling is mutual, but Jake keeps their past from Isla as he follows a devastating trail to the source of Reg's wealth. When Jake disappears following a winter camping trip, Isla starts to connect the dots, with all roads leading to Reg and his magnificent property on Georgian Bay.

Seamlessly weaving together observations on the entitlements of the wealthy, the monetization of water and the politics of art, Joan Thomas has created a layered, page-turning read about how far we will go to hold on to power and what we will do to avenge old wounds. (From HarperCollinsCanada)

• Joan Thomas's novelWild Hopeis a page-turning mystery about wealth, water and art
• The best Canadian fiction of 2023

Joan Thomas is the author of five novels. Her first novel,Reading by Lightning,won the Commonwealth Prize for Best First Book (Canada and the Caribbean) and the Amazon First Novel Award. Her novelThe Opening Skywas a finalist for the Governor General's Literary Award for fiction in 2014 and was awarded the Engel/Findley Award by the Writers Trust of Canada. Her novelFive Wiveswon the2019 Governor General's Literary Award for fiction.

Interviews with Joan Thomas

The Next Chapter13:44Joan Thomas explores privilege and the perils of ambition in Wild Hope

The follow-up to her Governor Generals Literary Award winner Five Wives is a gripping and nuanced story of entitlement, corporate greed and vengeance.