Study for Obedience

A novel

By: Sarah Bernstein

Narrated by: Sarah Bernstein

WINNER OF THE 2023 SCOTIABANK GILLER PRIZE
Shortlisted for the 2023 Booker Prize
Included in Granta's Best of Young British Novelists 2023
Longlisted for the Dublin Literary Award

For readers of Shirley Jackson, Iain Reid, and Claire-Louise Bennett, a haunting, compressed masterwork from an extraordinary new voice in Canadian fiction.

A young woman moves from the place of her birth to the remote northern country of her forebears to be housekeeper to her brother, whose wife has recently left him.

Soon after her arrival, a series of inexplicable events occurs - collective bovine hysteria; the demise of a ewe and her nearly born lamb; a local dog's phantom pregnancy; a potato blight. She notices that the local suspicion about incomers in general seems to be directed with some intensity at her and she senses a mounting threat that lies 'just beyond the garden gate.' And as she feels the hostility growing, pressing at the edges of her brother's property, she fears that, should the rumblings in the town gather themselves into a more defined shape, who knows what might happen, what one might be capable of doing.

With a sharp, lyrical voice, Sarah Bernstein powerfully explores questions of complicity and power, displacement and inheritance. Study for Obedience is a finely tuned, unsettling novel that confirms Bernstein as one of the most exciting voices of her generation.

Took some time to come around, but I really appreciate this work

It took me three tries to get through this book. I couldn't explain what it was that kept drawing me back and saying give it another chance, but I'm very glad that I did. I reflect on this book often, and I find myself thinking about the story and having Aha! moments.

Perfect novel

This is an idiosyncratic novel about being an outsider, being shunned and being a Jew.

Lyrical and…..

There were segments so lyrical and beautifully written that I was drawn to the words and not the content. I’m not sure I was able to follow the lyrical pathway to understand the story.

Interesting and Unsettling

Interesting book it makes you think about inclusiveness and exclusion… Guilt over who you are… And historical prejudice. Worth your time.