Between

***Author has a PhD in English literature from the University of Calgary and teaches English and creative writing at the College of the Rockies in Cranbrook, British Columbia, Canada ***Author's first novel, The Bone Cage, was a finalist in CBC's Canada Reads competition. Vero and her husband Shane have moved out of the sweet suite above his parents' garage and found themselves smack in the middle of adulthood?two kids, two cars, two jobs. They are not coping well. In response to their looming domestic breakdown, Vero and Shane get live-in help with their sons?a woman from the Philippines named Ligaya (which means happiness); the children call her LiLi. Vero justifies LiLi's role in their home by insisting that she is part of their family, and she goes to great lengths in order to ease her conscience. But differences persist; Vero grapples with her overextended role as a mother and struggles to keep her marriage passionate, while LiLi silently bears the burden of a secret she left behind at home. Between offers readers an intriguing, searing portrait of two women from two different cultures. At the same time, it satirizes contemporary love, marriage, and parenthood by exposing the sense of entitlement and superiority at the heart of upper-middle-class North American existence through a ubiquitous presence in it: the foreign nanny. Angie Abdou comically and tragically tackles the issue of international nannies by providing a window on motherhood where it is tangled up with class, career, labor, and desire. "Between is not a novel that you'll forget easily with its dark humor, its lifelike characters, and a story of many complicated relationships that lead to a jaw-dropping conclusion. Pick this book up -- you won't be able to put it down." -Jowita Bydlowska, author of Drunk Mom "In Between, Angie Abdou doesn't take the predictable road. She deftly steers us into the deepest of emotional potholes, lands us in the ditch, and then finds a way back out again. This book is hilarious and disturbing, and an honest look at marriage and parenthood and the ways that entitlement and sex can drive wedges between us." -Farzana Doctor, author of Six Metres of Pavement "In Between, it is the women who share the greatest burdens, yet still find it difficult to connect across lines of class and culture. Abdou has stared fraught subject matter in the face and handled it with grace and humour. Her refreshing novel sympathetically reveals women as they are, flaws and all." -Quill and Quire "Between asks nuanced questions of and avoids pat answers on a thorny dilemma facing many families today." -The Globe and Mail "Darkly funny and elegantly written ... Abdou is an important voice in Canadian fiction, and this strong new work will enlarge her already substantial body of devoted readers." -Vancouver Sun