Emma and Gregory have a perfect life — a gorgeous home, a successful design firm — except for their inability to start a family. Following a traumatic failed pregnancy, they decide to travel to Russia to adopt a pair of twin boys. From the moment they board the plane in St. Petersburg, the twins begin to demonstrate perverse behaviour that grows increasingly ominous, driving a wedge between Emma and Gregory, and alienating their friends and family. The two brothers show worrying signs of lack of empathy, and seem to leave behind a trail of disturbing incidents, and rumours persist as the boys grow into teenagers — even as Emma continues to cling to her dream of the perfect family. A dark, violent, and tense novel, Daniil and Vanya shows the bond between parent and child gone horribly awry. (From Invisible Publishing)

Marie-Hélène Larochelle is a professor of literature at York University in Toronto. Daniil and Vanya is her first novel.

Michelle Winters is a writer, translator and artist from Saint John. Her debut novel, I Am a Truck, was shortlisted for the 2017 Scotiabank Giller Prize.