Astra

A Novel

By: Cedar Bowers

Narrated by: Athena Karkanis

Length: 9 hrs and 24 mins

Publisher's summary

What if you could see yourself as others see you? Astra is a beguiling debut novel that reveals the different faces of one woman, as seen through the eyes of 10 people over a lifetime. Longlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize and named a Best Book of the Year by the Globe and Mail, Winnipeg Free Press, and CBC Books.

Born and raised on a remote British Columbia commune, Astra Brine has long struggled to find her way in the world, her life becoming a study of the thin line between dependence and love, need and desire. Over the years, as her path intersects with others - sometimes briefly, but always intensely - she will encounter people who, by turns, want to rescue, control, become, and escape her, revealing difficult yet shining truths about who they are and what they yearn for.

There is the childhood playmate who comes to fear Astra’s unpredictable ways. The stranger who rescues her from homelessness, and then has to wrestle with his own demons. The mother who hires Astra as a live-in nanny even as her own marriage goes off the rails.

The man who takes a leap of faith and marries her.

Even as Astra herself remains the elusive yet compelling axis around which these narratives turn, her story reminds us of the profound impact that a woman can have on those around her, and the power struggles at play in all our relationships, no matter how intimate. A beautifully constructed and revelatory novel, Astra explores what we’re willing to give and receive from others, and how well we ever really know the people we love the most.

©2020 Cedar Bowers (P)2020 McClelland & Stewart

Critic reviews

 "A nuanced portrait of a complex character and the many ways in which she touches people’s lives.... Astra is a beautifully written book that challenges us to explore the idea of self and how we can appear to be so many different things to so many people. As her husband, Nick, notes, 'If I mentioned everything outstanding about Astra, we’d be here for hours'.” (Toronto Star)

"Bowers is very good at tracking atmospheric shifts in domestic arrangements, things usually unspoken or misplaced that can only bloom in the wake of emotional risk." (Quill & Quire)

"Cedar Bowers's debut took my breath away. In Astra, Bowers dares to contend with the many selves we all contain — those we conceal, those we perform, those we try to outrun in our search for love, belonging, and home. She holds the human heart like a diamond to the light, exposing its every fault, its every dream, its every pain that both damns and anoints. Bowers writes with the unsentimental clarity and aching wisdom of a young Alice Munro. A fiercely beautiful novel. I could not put it down." (Claudia Dey, author of Heartbreaker and Stunt)

Loved it!

Very well narrated! Deep, tender, thought-provoking! I realy appreciated how it all tied together at tbe end in a beautiful and satisfying way without being predictable!