Twin Studies - Freehand Books

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Twin Studies

  • Publication Date: September 10, 2018
  • ISBN: 9781988298313 / 1988298318
  • 500 pages; 6" x 9"

An engrossing, timely, and contemporary novel about the bonds between twins, about sexuality and gender fluidity, and about the messy complexities of modern family life – the much-anticipated new novel in more than a decade by acclaimed writer Keith Maillard.

Dr. Erica Bauer – an identical twin – studies twins at the university in Vancouver. Through the course of her research, she meets a set of preteen twins who are evidently fraternal, but who insist emphatically that they are identical. Their mother, Karen Oxley, is a West Van single mum whose life is on the wrong road – and who discovers an urgent need to put it back on the right one. As Erica sets out to help the twins, their lives become increasingly intertwined in unexpected ways.

Twin Studies is a masterful novel that explores the complicated bonds between twins and siblings, friends and lovers; the role of class and money; and the nature of gender and sexuality. It’s a novel with characters who are real, their relationships a rich world that readers will thoroughly lose themselves in. No other contemporary novel so deftly explores the intersection between our inner lives and our public lives – that “we’re not what people see.”

“Keith Maillard’s Twin Studies is a novel that challenges everything we think we know about family and the nature of love. Three sets of twins struggle with loss, identity, and adulthood, and in the middle of it all, Karen, a beleaguered, beautiful, and wryly intelligent mother, tries to keep everyone afloat, even as she feels her own life slipping under the weight of responsibility and confusion. Deliberately written, fiercely inventive, and unflinching, Twin Studies is a deeply satisfying novel by one of Canada’s finest authors.” JEN SOOKFONG LEE author of The Conjoined

“Maillard’s generous affection for his characters is matched by his vividly real depictions of Vancouver. His fascinating exploration of wealth, class, and gender fluidity reads like a 21st-century Canadian version of Dickens’ London novels.” iBOOKS

Praise for Keith Maillard

“[A] work of terrible beauty and grace, a masterpiece fit to contend with the best novels of the last century.” GLOBE AND MAIL

“Maillard is a national treasure.” KIRKUS

“Keith Maillard’s books changed my life. They made me want to write, and to be a writer.” DAVE BIDINI

Alberta Trade Fiction Book of the Year, 2019 (short-listed)

News & Events

Twin Studies and Hummingbird on the ReLit shortlist
Three Freehand books win at Alberta Book Publishing Awards
Freehand Books Shortlisted at Alberta Book Publishing Awards
Keith Maillard at the Sunshine Coast Festival of the Written Arts

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