People You Grew Up With: A Novel
Date
2023-09-27
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
ORCID
Type
Thesis
Degree Level
Masters
Abstract
People You Grew Up With is a coming-of-age novel. Told in the voice of its protagonist, Alma Montanya, the narrative begins in the near future on the picturesque coast of Italy where Alma is travelling as a newly single woman in her thirties. One morning, drinking a cappuccino and scrolling on her phone, she stumbles upon news of a devastating wildfire that struck the small prairie town of her childhood, Pheasant Creek, Alberta. As Alma is prompted to reckon with her memories of this place, the narrative shifts back in time to mid- to late-2000s when she was a teen in rural Alberta. By thus interweaving scenes from Alma’s present reality with scenes from her earliest experiences with love and loss, People You Grew Up With asks, how do the people and places that we know in our youth shape who we become? To what extent can we move on from these formative experiences and to what extent are we bound to them?
Description
Keywords
fiction, novel, coming-of-age, female protagonist, prairie, Alberta, Canada,
Citation
Degree
Master of Fine Arts (M.F.A.)
Department
English
Program
Writing