Lemon

Shortlisted for the 2010 Trillium Book Award!

Lemon has three mothers: a biological one shes never met, her adopted fathers suicidal ex, and Drew, a school principal who hasnt left the house since she was stabbed by a student. She has one deadbeat dad, one young cancer-riddled protégé, and two friends, the school tramp and a depressed poet.

Figuring the numbers are against her, Lemon just cant be bothered trying to fit in. She spurns fashion, television, and even the mall. She reads Mary Wollstonecraft and gets pissed off that Jane Eyre is such a wimp. Meanwhile, the adults in her life are all mired in self-centredness, and the other kids are getting high, beating each other up in parks, and trying to outsex one another. High school is misery, a trial run for an unhappy adulthood of bloated waistlines, bad sex, contradictions, and inequities, and nothing guidance counsellor Blecher can say will convince Lemon otherwise.

But making the choice to opt out of sex and violence and cancer and disappointment doesnt mean that these things dont find you. It will be up to Lemon if she can survive them with her usual cavalier aplomb.

Longlisted for the 2010 Scotiabank Giller Prize, Lemon is the story of a teenaged girl with the numbers against her.

Longlisted for the 2010 Scotiabank Giller Prize, Lemon is the story of a teenaged girl with the numbers against her: three mothers, one deadbeat dad, one cancer-riddled protege, two friends, one tree-hugging stepbrother and a 60 percent average. The adults in her life are all mired in self-centeredness and the other kids are busy getting high, and she just can't be bothered to fit in.

Born and raised in Montreal, Cordelia Strube trained as an actress, moving to Toronto in the 80s. She turned to writing plays for stage and radio, and in 1987 won the CBC Literary Competition for her play Mortal. She has also won the Toronto Arts Foundation Protege Award and been shortlisted for the Prix Italia, the Books In Canada First Novel Award, the ReLit, and the Governor Generals Award. Her seven novels include Miltons Elements, Dr. Kalbfleisch and the Chicken Restaurant and Planet Reese. Lemon, her latest novel, was shortlisted for the 2010 Trillium Book Award and longlisted for the 2010 Scotiabank Giller Prize.