Gwen Tuinman, Novelist

[Tuinman] comes through with sharply detailed portraits of feminine resilience....
Unrest is an edgy adventure yarn about women's freedom. It's a thoroughly Canadian novel, yet it also has the flavour of the Wild West.

Filled with fascinating characters, Tuinman's well-researched story features a dangerous, lawless time in eastern Ontario and a woman's incredible bravery and determination to help her son. Highly recommended!

[Unrest] is a meticulously researched story about the brutally difficult lives of Irish immigrants in the Ottawa Valley in the 1830s. It's a riveting tale.

Meticulously researched and exquisitely written, Unrest is unapologetic in its starkly vivid depiction of Upper Canada’s frozen wilderness and the people who survived within it. A marvellous adventure.

Dark secrets seeded in Ireland burst into full and furious bloom in Gwen Tuinman’s Unrest. With sharply-seen details of 1830s Ottawa, Unrest parallels personal and political peril in the gritty world of Bytown’s Irish poor. Tender, brutal, heartbreaking and true, this is historical fiction at its best.

In her stunningly beautiful story Unrest, Gwen Tuinman’s memorable antiheroes—the transcendent and mesmerizing Mariah, and the dazzlingly rebellious young Thomas—navigate the wilds alongside a gang of unforgettably diverse eccentrics in the lawless Ottawa Valley of 1836. The writing is a triumph—unflinchingly powerful and at the same time a meditation on motherhood, love, and what we must do to become our true selves. Tuinman’s prose is as remarkable and exquisite as its setting, saturated with period detail and heart. I couldn’t put it down.

I could not rest until I turned the last, thoroughly satisfying page of Unrest, a mesmerizing tale that drew me in from the first gorgeously lyrical page. With unforgettable characters and meticulous detail, the author immerses readers in the cold, hard-scrabble existence of Upper Canada and the soul of the oppressed Irish . . . A compelling story of deception and truth, terror and courage, subjugation and transformation, Unrest makes history both vividly particular and timeless in its incisive depiction of human passions.

Gwen Tuinman’s Unrest depicts a little-known aspect of 19th century Canadian history. Her portrayal of the lives of Irish immigrants to Ottawa is expertly drawn in remarkable detail, from political gatherings in taverns to encounters with the harsh winter landscape. . . . An important story that opens a window on what it means to fight for your place here.

Set in frontier Ottawa and the frozen wilderness of Upper Canada, Unrest offers a unique, vibrant account of the Irish poor as they navigate a society awash in hardship, corruption, and prejudice. Tough-as-nails Mariah and her rash, willful son Thomas come to vivid, aching life as they rise up against the oppressive forces that restrain them. A skillfully researched, compelling tale of resilience, love and the relentless pursuit of one’s dreams.

Unrest is a wild ride through a bygone world bristling with life. Tuinman’s flawed and feisty mother-son duo hold on tight through it all, losing and finding their way amid poverty and longing, violence and lies. An unforgettable portrait of human cruelty and its only possible conqueror, love.

Lively, many-voiced, and replete with detail, Unrest is a great adventure and an impressive portrait of little-known settler life around Ottawa. Its characters will live on in your mind.

I really, really loved Unrest . . . Unrest paints a stark and vivid portrait of a family bound in a tight knot of conflicting secrets, obligations, and desires, while invoking early 19th century life in upper Canada in every rebellious, hardscrabble detail. The compelling, multifaceted characters raise entirely modern questions about the nature of what one wants versus what one needs, and which things are truly worth fighting for.

In this unflinching, gripping novel of survival and perseverance, Tuinman seamlessly weaves meticulous historical research with compelling, achingly human characters to bring 19th century Ontario alive on the page. From the squalid, grimy streets of historical Ottawa to the harsh camaraderie of timber camps deep in the wilderness, Unrest takes readers on an intimate tour of life in Canada’s past. An inspiring story of one woman’s triumph against a society that dismisses her worth, and the inner fire that keeps us going through the darkest nights of the soul.