About this Event
Another Story Bookshop and HarperCollins Canada invite you to the Toronto launch of Behind You by Catherine Hernandez
Event includes:
*Performance and hosting by Scarborough's own Phoenix Pagliacci
*Readings from Behind You with author Catherine Hernandez
*Discussion with Scarborough Women's Centre about how Toronto's east side was impacted when a serial killer was in our midst
*Books will be available for purchase, and, of course, Catherine Hernandez will be signing!
Sliding scale admission with net proceeds going towards the Scarborough Women's Centre. All are welcome to attend. Masking is strongly recommended at this event to keep everyone, including the author, safe. Co-sponsored by Tam Fam Lit Jam, Scarborough Women's Centre and It's Ok Studio.
ACCESSIBILITY INFO: It's OK is a Black-Owned, wheelchair accessible space, including its washrooms. We will provide QR Code links where people can watch live captioning on their devices.
ABOUT THE BOOK:
Catherine Hernandez’s most gripping and affecting novel yet, Behind You is inspired by a horrifying chapter in Canadian history and follows fictional characters terrorized by a fictional perpetrator.
Alma is a film editor working on a True Crime series about the twentieth century’s most notorious killers. It’s not until the series’ last episode, which features the Scarborough Stalker,that Alma remembers coming of age while the serial rapist and killer was attacking women and girls in Scarborough in the late 80s and early 90s.
Two storylines unfold. In the past, young Alma watches as an entire city hunts for an elusive, terrifying suspect, while she herself faces jeopardy from closer corners. In the present, adult Alma must come to terms with her own ideas of consent in order to stop her teenage son Mateo’s dangerous behaviour toward his girlfriend. Weaving back and forth in time, Behind You is a moving story of one girl’s resilience as she enters adulthood and a chilling portrayal of the insidiousness of rape culture. It daringly turns the whodunit genre on its head by asking “Who hasn’t done it?” As in, who hasn’t been complicit in sexual harm?
PRAISE FOR BEHIND YOU:
“Behind You adeptly uses one woman's formative experience of terror to complicate adult dilemmas about romantic power struggles and contemporary parenting. With Hernandez’s trademark humour and honesty, the story looks at how our cultural obsession with violent crime and experiences of misogyny as adolescents stop us from looking at the ways we can all cause harm to the ones we love.” – Zoe Whittall, author of Wild Failure
“A thrilling page turner with just the right amount of soft touch to get you through. This feels like such a tender return to Scarborough: community care, brilliant, complicated characters but also an intimate and unflinching look on what it means to survive and heal and to believe again, urging us to take responsibility for our own complicity and for our lives. Catherine Hernandez has entered her poet era and it is such a privilege to witness.” – Téa Mutonji, author of Shut Up, You’re Pretty
BIOS:
PHOENIX PAGLIACCI
pHoenix Pagliacci is an artist and activist. Born and raised in Toronto, Canada, pHoenix began her artistic journey at the age of 6. Learning the piano and developing her singing/songwriting, pHoenix learned of her love for music from her family.
As a teenager, pHoenix attended Wexford Collegiate School for the Arts. There, she excelled as a performer and furthered her craft as an artist. pHoenix participated in the school’s annual variety shows and was recognized as a unique talent by her peers and staff. pHoenix has performed across North America and written and performed with Canadian artists such as Eternia, Michie Mee, DJ Shub, Shad and Ghettosocks. She has also worked with international artists such as Rapsody, Killah Priest of Wu -Tang Clan, Tajai from Souls of Mischief and the legendary Jean Grae. pHoenix is also a Voice Actor, and has contributed to award- nominated audiobooks, such as “Gutter Child” by Jael Richardson and “The Lost Sister” by Andrea Gunraj.
CATHERINE HERNANDEZ
Catherine Hernandez (she/her) is an award-winning author and screenwriter. She is a proud queer woman who is of Filipino, Spanish, Chinese and Indian descent and married into the Navajo Nation. Her first novel, Scarborough, won the Jim Wong-Chu Award for the unpublished manuscript and was a finalist for several awards including Canada Reads 2022. She wrote the screenplay for the film adaptation of Scarborough, which was nominated for 11 Canadian Screen Awards and won 8 including Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay. Her second novel, Crosshairs, was shortlisted for the Toronto Book Award and made several Best-Of lists of 2020. Her third novel, The Story of Us, was an instant national bestseller. She is currently working on a few television projects. Her fourth novel, Behind You, about a young girl growingup in Scarborough when a serial killer was at large, will be published on May 7 by HarperCollins Canada.
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
It's Ok* Studios, 468 Queen Street West, Toronto, Canada
CAD 5.00 to CAD 10.00
