Mudflowers - by Aley Waterman (Paperback)

About the Book

"In the year following her mother's death, Sophie navigates a complicated love triangle between a new flame and a past partner. It's the west end of Toronto, the apartments are small, and everybody is twenty-seven and making some kind of art. In the wake of her mother's death, Sophie pays rent by making stained glass mosaics for rich people and plays house with her childhood friend and sometimes-lover, the beautiful boy Alex. Both are from Newfoundland but move easily in this world of crowded patios and DIY movie shoots. When Sophie meets the glamorous poet Maggie, who is the downtown product of a hundred cool queer bars, she falls into a bewildered infatuation, but secrets emerge that threaten to crumble the foundation of her relationship with Alex and Maggie both. Moving from bohemian Toronto to an arts colony in a castle in France and then back to Newfoundland, Mudflowers examines the impact of family that one is born into and family one chooses, exploring new and unconventional intimacies."--

Book Synopsis

FINALST FOR THE 2023 BMO WINTERSET AWARD

"A gorgeous depiction of the tender, painful stretching required to love well and expansively, to recast our ideas of romance and family." -- Aimee Wall, author of We, Jane

In the year following her mother's death, Sophie navigates a complicated love triangle between a new flame and a past partner.

It's the west end of Toronto, the apartments are small, and everybody is twenty-seven and making some kind of art. In the wake of her mother's death, Sophie pays rent by making stained glass mosaics for rich people and plays house with her childhood friend and sometimes-lover, the beautiful boy Alex. Both are from Newfoundland but move easily in this world of crowded patios and DIY movie shoots.

When Sophie meets the glamorous poet Maggie, who is the downtown product of a hundred cool queer bars, she falls into a bewildered infatuation, but secrets emerge that threaten to crumble the foundation of her relationship with Alex and Maggie both.

A RARE MACHINES BOOK

Review Quotes

Waterman examines the boundaries of trilateral relationships with an observant and honest facility. Written in casual-sounding but philosophically minded prose, the book's insights are most powerful when linked to Sophie's states of emotional resignation.-- "Toronto Star"

Waterman's debut is a really cogent depiction of grief, intimacies of all sorts, and the complexities of human connection. This book is intimate and true and heartfelt and moving. And it's written in sincerely beautiful prose. A wonderful book of learning how to love differently and anew.-- "Mira, bookseller, A Room of One's Own"

Thought-provoking, expansive, and raw ... Aley Waterman's sensitive first novel, Mudflowers, follows a young woman exploring intimacy, biological and built families, and art.-- "Shelf Awareness"

Waterman's debut novel has dark moments, but there is levity, too. Sophie's humor is reminiscent of the protagonist's in Elif Batuman's The Idiot as is her constant stream of philosophical questions and analysis, her musings on love, big feelings, and death.-- "Booklist"

Aley Waterman is a writer who is awake and attentive to the weathers of the heart. Mudflowers is subtly activated by grief and the ways that losing a parent can build a world anew.-- "Claire Foster, literary translator and bookseller"

An ode to those who have lost and found their way in the big, irresistible, and labyrinthine smoke that is Toronto, Mudflowers weaves together a motley of contradictions, a remarkable patience with the steep learning curves of one's late twenties, and a surefooted commandeering of a moment foregone. Waterman's Sophie persuades the stumbling newcomer to keep stumbling in this graceful novel devoted to weirdo zeal and the perennial gifts of family.-- "Cody Caetano, author of Half-Bads in White Regalia"

Mudflowers is a gorgeous depiction of the tender, painful stretching required to love well and expansively, to recast our ideas of romance and family. There is something almost psychedelic in how vividly Waterman renders Sophie's inner world, her grief and her confusion and her fervent searching. I loved this funny, wise, moving book.-- "Aimee Wall, author of We, Jane"

Pulsing with dazzling and unexpected observations on selfhood, grief, and art-making, Mudflowers is an exhilarating meditation on the boundlessness of desire and the relentless possibility of youth.-- "Cassidy McFadzean, poet and author of Drolleries"

About the Author

Aley Waterman is a writer and musician who completed her M.A. in creative writing at the University of Toronto. Her writing has appeared in Bad Nudes, the Hart House Review, Vault Zine, Riddle Fence, and the Trampoline Hall podcast. Aley lives in Corner Brook, Newfoundland.