” Brash, duplicitous women, murder and mayhem, and illicit love abound in this wild adventure for fans of Outlander and The Home for Unwanted Girls, announcing a major new talent in historical fiction.” —Random House Canada
UNREST, my 19-century historical novel has been released today! I can’t wait for you to read it!
Purchase links at Penguin Random House Canada. Available in hardcover, e-book, or audiobook.
Here’s the story of UNREST, and praise by renowned Canadian authors: Beith Powning, Genevieve Graham, Suzanne Desrochers, Alissa York and Alix Hawley.
“Bytown, 1836: The lawless cesspool that will become the city of Ottawa is beginning to reek of more than just swamp water. Rife with squalor, corruption, and organized crime, class injustice divides the town more starkly than the canal that bisects it, cutting off its Irish poor—who are ready to fight back.
On a homestead in the woods near Bytown, a domestic drama is also reaching a fever pitch. Quiet, ungainly Mariah, her face scarred in a dog attack back home in Ireland, has been living on sufferance in her sister Biddy’s home since they sailed for a new life. She’s treated as the spinster aunt, a farmhand working alongside Biddy’s husband, Seamus. But the three of them are keeping a bitter secret: Mariah, in love with Seamus, is the mother of Thomas, the family’s oldest child. And she’s about to burst under the strain of making herself small.
While Mariah plots to claim her rightful place in the world, Thomas keeps secrets of his own. Eager to escape the roiling tensions at home, he’s apprenticed himself to a blacksmith in Bytown, but soon falls into trouble too big for him to handle. To save himself, he’s made a deal with the one man colder than the devil—Peter Aylen, leader of a powerful Irish rebel gang. As danger mounts, both for Thomas and for the town, there’s only one way for Mariah to save her son: by becoming the hero of her own story, facing her deepest fears with a determination she never knew she had.”
Praise for UNREST:
“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.” —Genevieve Graham, author of The Forgotten Home Child
“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.” —Beth Powning, author of The Sister’s Tale
“Gwen Tuinman’s Unrest depicts a little-known aspect of 19th century Canadian history.. . . . An important story that opens a window on what it means to fight for your place here.” —Suzanne Desrochers, author of Bride of New France
“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.” —Alissa York, author of Far Cry
“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.” —Alix Hawley, author of My Name Is a Knife
Gwen Tuinman 