num_pages: 320
description: In a small prairie school in 1929 Connie Flood helps a backward student Michael Graves learn how to read. Observing them and darkening their lives is the principal Parley Burns whose strange behaviour culminates in an attack so disturbing its repercussions continue to the present day.Connies niece Anne tells the story. Impelled by curiosity about her dynamic adventurous aunt and her more conventional mother she revisits Connies past and her mothers broken childhood. In the process she unravels the enigma of Parley Burns and the mysterious (and unrelated) deaths of two young girls. As the novel moves deeper into their lives the triangle of principal teacher student opens out into other emotional triangles  aunt niece lover; mother daughter granddaughter  until a sudden capsizing love thrusts Anne herself into a newly independent life. This spellbinding tale  set in Saskatchewan and the Ottawa Valley  crosses generations and cuts to the bone. It probes the roots of obsessive love and hate how the hurts and desires of childhood persist and are passed on as if in the blood. It lays bare the urgency of discovering what we were never told about the past. And it celebrates the process of becoming who we are in a world full of startling connections that lie just out of sight.Following her award-winning #1 bestselling Late Nights on Air Alone in the Classroom is Elizabeth Hays most intricate compelling and seductive novel yet
language: English
title: Alone in the Classroom
publisher: McClelland & Stewart