Virtual Launch: Amy LeBlanc – Unlocking, hosted by Aritha van Herk (June 23, 7pm MST)

Join us for the virtual launch of Amy LeBlanc’s new novel Unlocking. The evening will be hosted by Aritha Van Herk. This event will take place on Zoom.

Register on zoom here!

Check out the Facebook event here!


In Snowton, Alberta, secrets flourish like the crocuses in spring. When Louise Till lets herself into a neighbor’s home using a surreptitiously copied key, she discovers more than she ever wanted to know about her small town and herself.

Louise Till, mother of two, has inherited her father’s hardware store after her parents’ unexpected deaths. She begins to cut copies of her customers’ keys for herself, each one a talisman against grief and the terrible guilt she feels at not having realized that her parents were desperately unhappy.

Louise could use the keys, but she doesn’t. Not until her life is overturned, again, when her marriage falls apart. Lou gives in to temptation, letting herself into Euphemia Rosenbaum’s home. What follows is a tale of blackmail, break-ins, an unsolved mystery, and more secrets than Lou ever wanted to know.

Lou must confront not only the lives of her neighbors, but the unspoken truths of her family and the doors within herself for which there are no keys. Told over the course of one long winter, Unlocking is a poignant and penetrating exploration of grief, community, family, and the secrets we keep, even from ourselves.


Amy LeBlanc is a writer and editor based in Calgary, Alberta. She is a recipient of the Lieutenant Governor of Alberta Emerging Artist Award and author of the poetry collection I know something you don’t know.

Aritha van Herk is a cultural commentator as well as an award-winning Canadian novelist whose work has been acclaimed throughout North America and Europe. Her novels include The Tent Peg; No Fixed Address: An Amorous Journey; Places Far From Ellesmere; Restlessness. In Visible Ink; and A Frozen Tongue collect her essays and ficto-criticism.

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out /  Change )

Connecting to %s