The Perpetual Ending — Kristen den Hartog

Reminiscent of the Brothers Grimm's darkly magical tales, 'The Perpetual Ending' tells an enchanting story about devoted sisters and their world of opposites, doppelgangers and ghosts. Jane and Eugenie Ingrams are mirror-image twins, two halves of a whole, each understanding her world through the other. But their parents are less perfectly matched. When the couple separates and their father urges the girls to return with him to their rural home, Eugenie agrees for the sake of her sister -- an ultimately tragic concession. Years later, Jane works as a writer in Vancouver creating rich, fabulist tales with her lover Simon, a gifted illustrator. Estranged from her parents and haunted by her secret family history, Jane finds solace in these stories of extraordinary characters -- a girl who trades her laughter for a scalpful of cobwebs; a lonely child with unquenchable thirst; an orphan with the gift, or curse, of prophecy. Within the stories lie clues to Jane's past, of which Simon knows nothing. At once wondrous and psychologically compelling, 'The Perpetual Ending' is an exploration of love and artistry that shows the world in all of its grotesqueness and beauty -- and uncovers the surprising ways we can arrive at the heart of one story through the telling of others.