Certainty

By: Madeleine Thien

Narrated by: Laara Sadiq

In her stunning debut novel about a woman's journey to unravel the mystery of her parents' lives, Madeleine Thien proves herself a writer of vision, maturity, and style.

Certainty follows Gail Lim, a producer of radio documentaries in Vancouver, as she works to uncover the history of her parents' relationship and struggles to come to terms with the events that brought them together. Gail's search for the truth leads her to Amsterdam where she meets a war photographer named Sipke, who tells her the story of a woman named Ani—and in so doing, reveals valuable information that not only sheds further light on Gail's parents, but also brings Gail face to face with the complications in her own life and closer to unraveling the questions that have gripped her imagination.

With a voice at once vivid and poignant, Thien crafts a story that explores the legacies of loss, the dislocations of war, and the redemptive qualities of love.

Critic reviews

National bestseller
Finalist for the Kiriyama Prize for Fiction
Winner of the Amazon.ca First Novel Award

“Intricate and elegiac. . . . Written in powerful and uncluttered prose that cuts to the heart of grief.”
—Ottawa Citizen

“Certainty is poised to become an international literary bestseller and . . . the most popular Canadian novel since Miriam Toews’s A Complicated Kindness . . . as well known as The English Patient. . . . If all that happens, it’s ever so well deserved.”
—The Globe and Mail

“As I read Madeleine Thien’s first novel, I was reminded time and again of Anne Michaels’ Fugitive Pieces, another work set largely in Canada but taking as its canvas the memories and unresolved legacies of the Second World War. There is a huge difference in tone between the novels—Michaels’ feels carved out of solid dark mahogany, while Thien’s is like an airy house on stilts—but both employ science and the natural world as metaphors to explore the mysterious human layers of memory, loss, and love. . . . [Thien] is a brilliant creator of images. There are purely sensual ones. . . . There are also unforgettable human images. . . . There is unbearable sadness here, and yet there is hope as well.”
—Quill & Quire (starred review)

“[A] compelling debut novel.”
—CBC Books

“In her beautifully written debut novel, Thien spins a silky web of a story, a lovely and powerful multigenerational saga. . . . There is a light, translucent quality to Thien’s prose that casts a certain dreamlike quality on the tale, and yet the magnetic plot will keep the reader’s interest through the end.”
—Booklist

“The austere grace and polished assurance of her prose [is] remarkable.”
—The New York Times Book Review

“A moving, richly textured and immaculately nuanced study of war, grief, displacement, love, renewal.”
—Montreal Review of Books

“Thien’s clear-eyed, austere writing is a thing of simple beauty. . . . A wise and thoughtful debut.”
—Winnipeg Free Press