Everything Turns Away
Michelle Berry
September 7, 2021
282 PAGES | ISBN 978-1-989496-39-8
On September 11th, 2001, the world changed. For Sophie and Paul, it started with a disastrous dinner party. For the babysitter, it started with waking in a dark kitchen and recognizing the smell of blood. For so many others, it started with a plane flying into the World Trade Center. In this tautly written domestic thriller Michelle Berry weaves together the story of two couples whose lives are about to be unravelled by the murder of a neighbour, a babysitter who has gone missing and the aftermath of the collapse of the World Trade Center. Everything Turns Away is a haunting exploration of marriages and what tears them apart, of what happens to people during shocking events and of how everything can change in an instant. Filled with richly drawn characters, a web of thwarted desires and multiple motives, Everything Turns Away is riveting until the very end.
Reviews
Everything Turns Away by Michelle Berry (Carrie Stanton, Miramichi Reader, 02/08/2022)
"This is a layered and seductive telling of a mystery centred around the babysitter, a murder, and how each of the lives of the four married people is drawn into the ordeal."
Michelle Berry, Everything Turns Away (Zoe McKenna, Malahat Review, Spring 2022)
"Everything Turns Away is perfectly aware of the ways in which trauma can make people act irrationally, even cruelly. Yet Berry holds space for this reaction all the same. Room must be made to endure all things – regardless of their scope, regardless of whether others have it worse – in order to overcome them. Suffering is no competitive sport."
The things we carry (Steven W. Beattie, That Shakespearean Rag, 29/11/2021)
"Michelle Berry examines the confluence of personal and geopolitical trauma in Everything Turns Away."
Peterborough writer Michelle Berry’s new book ‘Everything Turns Away’ a domestic thriller with literary flair (Robert J. Wiersema, Toronto Star, 06/10/2021)
"Everything Turns Away is an impressive mystery with strong thriller elements and well worth reading on that level alone. Where Berry excels, though, is with her attention to each character [...] While the four main characters begin as familiar types, they deepen and fill out over the novel, becoming relatable and sympathetic despite some inherent unlikability. Most readers will find elements like the respective bitchy post-dinner analyses and the escalating marital complications perhaps uncomfortably familiar."
Everything Turns Away (Stacey May Fowles, Quill and Quire, 13/09/2021)
"Berry’s skilled, unforgiving rendering of these flawed characters, along with her propelling prose, is exactly what makes the novel so compulsively readable."
Interviews
Michelle Berry in conversation with Jamie Tennant at Hamilton Public Library (Hamilton Public Library, 04/04/2022)
Michelle Berry speaks with Jamie Tennant about her recent novel, Everything Turns Away.
12 or 20 (second series) questions with Michelle Berry (rob mclennan, rob mclennan's blog, 29/09/2022)
"A writer should be open to things and should be watching the world around her. Our role should be to raise discussion, I guess. To make people think. To make readers empathetic to other ways of life."
Book Therapy: Favourites from my favourites (Stacey May Fowles, Open Book, 20/12/2021)
Stacey May Fowles asks Michelle about which books moved her in 2021.
Ontario Morning Podcast - Wednesday December 1, 2021 (CBC Radio, 12/01/2021)
Hear Michelle talk about bookselling, writing Everything Turns Away and starting a new chapter in her creative life. Interview starts at 32:02.
E258 with MICHELLE BERRY (Jamie Tennant, Get Lit, 28/10/2021)
Host Jamie Tennant talks with Michelle Berry about her new novel.
Under the Cover: Everything Turns Away (All Lit Up, 10/09/2021)
"It is a novel that started with an image in my mind as well – a woman after a dinner party slamming the butter dish down."
Articles
Thrillers That Will Leave You Thinking (H&A Christensen, 49th Shelf, 26/01/2023)
Michelle's novel is included in this list of great thrillers.
15 historical fiction books to lose yourself in this summer (CBC Books, 12/07/2022)
Michelle's thriller is included in this round-up of historical fiction for the summer.
18 books for the crime and thriller lover on your holiday shopping list (CBC Books, 08/12/2021)
Michelle's novel makes this list of thrillers from the CBC!
2021: Books of the Year (49th Shelf, 06/12/2021)
MIchelle's novel is one of 49th Shelf's best of the year!
Hunter Street Books closing Dec. 24 in Peterborough; Michelle Berry returning to full-time writing (Joelle Kovach, Peterborough Examiner, 15/11/2021)
Michelle is profiled in the Peterborough Examiner.
Shelf Talkers: Books to Buy in November (Robert Wiersema, 49th Shelf, 10/11/2021)
"With fully human, complex and faltering characters, this one is a snack best savoured."
The Hamilton Review of Books' Independently Published Bestsellers List: September (Hamilton Review of Books, 08/10/2021)
Michelle's novel makes the HRB's independent bestsellers list!
Editors' Picks: Week of October 4, 2021 (Kiley Turner, 49th Shelf, 04/10/2021)
Michelle's novel makes this 49th Shelf Editors' Picks list!
All Queued Up: Your Bookish Fall Lineup (All Lit Up, 22/09/2021)
Michelle's new novel makes All Lit Up's weekly roundup of new indie books for your fall TBR.
Otobabee Ward: Peterborough writer's new thriller is a murder mystery (Joanne Culley, Peterborough Examiner, 05/09/2021)
“‘Everything Turns Away isn't really a mystery/thriller, rather it's about families and relationships and, yes, has a murder thrown in,' [Berry] continues. 'It’s more about what happens around the crime and the relationships between the characters.'”
65 Canadian works of fiction to watch for in fall 2021 (CBC Books, 12/08/2021)
Michelle's novel makes the CBC's list of Canadian works of fiction to watch for in fall 2021.
Most Anticipated: Our 2021 Fall Fiction Preview (49th Shelf, 12/07/2021)
Michelle's novel makes the 49th Shelf's list of Most Anticipated Fall Fiction Preview.
Excerpt
Read an excerpt from Everything Turns Away.
About the Author
Michelle Berry is the author of three books of short stories and five previous novels. Her short story collection I Still Don’t Even Know You won the 2011 Mary Scorer Award for Best Book Published by a Manitoba Publisher and was shortlisted for a 2011 ReLit Award. Her novel This Book Will Not Save Your Life won the 2010 Colophon Award and was longlisted for the 2011 ReLit Award. Her writing has been optioned for film and published in the UK.
Berry was a reviewer for the Globe and Mail for many years, and taught online for the University of Toronto. She was also a mentor at Humber College. Berry now lives in Peterborough, ON, where she owns an independent online bookstore, Hunter Street Books. Please visit www.hunterstreetbooks.com/.
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