Missing the ark : a novel
The story of Agnes Underhill and her attempt to keep possession of her newborn daughter amid the demons of her past. Growing up in East Vancouver in the 1980s, her active but troubled imagination makes it difficult to live with her dysfunctional family: her Scottish father speaks in tongues and lives in a locked basement room until he disappears, while her dental hygienist mother criticizes her parenting and juggles a number of lovers. The novel follows Agnes' relationship with Buffalo man, a divorced taxidermist whom she follows home from the zoo, and the jealous chimpanzee who lives with him. Much of the story takes place in the colourful world of Agnes' memory, where her obsession with biology compels her to seek out meaning beneath the surface of things. This is a novel about memory and perception, exploring the thin line between what is inside and what is out, what is seen and what can't be known. Kidd's language is precise and powerful. This is a rich, complex, intelligent first novel by a very talented writer
Print Book, English, c2007
Conundrum Press, Montréal, c2007