At Last Count

Finalist for the 2025 Kobo Emerging Writers Prize in RomanceA Globe and Mail Best Book of 2022For readers who love Mark Haddon, Miriam Toews, and Sally RooneyPaisley Ratchford is trying to keep it together, but in eight weeks, the Toronto apartment building she lives in will be demolished. A last-ditch effort to reclaim her abandoned childhood home on Amherst Island plunges Paisley into memories of growing up in the tight-knit community, and into the obsessive compulsive disorder that has only ever offered a semblance of control. Her compulsion to count in sets of eight had little effect on thwarting bullies, her fathers bad luck, and her mothers mental illnessall of which return to haunt her.When help arrives in the form of Paisleys old classmate and tormentor Garnet Mulligan, her predicament only worsens. For a shot at a future, Paisley needs to stare down her past, including all the habits that have stopped her from thriving. At Last Count is a wise and often laugh-out-loud funny tale that proves we dont always need to believe everything our brain tells us.