Iain Reid, author of WE SPREAD, profiled by the Globe & Mail, interviewed on Q with Tom Power, reviewed in the Guardian, chosen for NPR’s Books We Love, & selected for Kobo’s Black Friday Promotion!
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, unbeknownst to her, 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 genre-defying third novel explores questions of conformity, art, productivity, relationships, and what, ultimately, it means to grow old.
Iain Reid is the author of four previous books, including his New York Times bestselling debut novel I’m Thinking of Ending Things, which has been translated into more than twenty languages. Oscar winner Charlie Kaufman wrote and directed the film adaptation for Netflix. His second novel, Foe, is being adapted for film, starring Saoirse Ronan, with Reid cowriting the screenplay. His latest novel is We Spread. Reid lives in Ontario, Canada.
Iain is represented by Samantha Haywood.
To read his profile by the Globe & Mail, please visit: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books/article-iain-reid-hollywood-canadian-novelist/
To listen to the interview, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/q/wednesday-oct-5-2022-iain-reid-jully-black-and-more-1.6605294
To read the WE SPREAD review, please visit: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/nov/04/we-spread-by-iain-reid-review-a-fine-piece-of-weird-fiction
To review NPR’s Books We Love for 2022 list, please visit: https://apps.npr.org/best-books/#view=covers&year=2022