Overview
“It is a confusing thing to be born between generations where the one above thinks nothing is trauma and the one below thinks everything is trauma.”
From acclaimed novelist and television writer Zoe Whittall comes a memoir in prose poetry that reconfirms her celebrated honesty, emotional acuity, and wit. Riving and probing a period of six years marked by abandoned love, the pain of a lost pregnancy, and pandemic isolation, No Credit River is a reckoning with the creative instinct itself.
Open and exacting, this is a unique examination of anxiety in complex times, and a contribution to contemporary autofiction as formally inventive as it is full of heart.
Reviews
“Zoe Whittall’s gripping new novel, The Fake, upends the expected scammer narrative. Instead of cozying up to the fake herself, we’re caught alongside the two vulnerable people who cling to her as a quick fix for psychic pain. We know this woman who weaponizes false victimhood to get what she wants will only hurt them more, but the story’s irresistible momentum defies us to look away.”—Laura Sims, author of Looker “
The Fake is as witty and sharp as it is humane. I fell in love with these characters, and with the fabulist, fabulous heart that animates Whittall’s writing.”—Jen Silverman, author of We Play Ourselves
“Zoe Whittall has created her most extraordinary, complicated, and lovable characters yet. A beautiful, charismatic liar appears in the lives of vulnerable and grieving people, and her elaborate tales of woe weave everyone into her spell, with tragic results. My perspective on lies and liars has forever changed after reading this book.”—Heather O’Neill, author of When We Lost Our Heads
“A compelling, hypnotic tale about grief, lies, and truth that forces us to examine what it means to trust, to deceive, to take advantage, and to be vulnerable. Whittall’s latest is a terrifyingly honest look at the lies we tell each other and ourselves that moves at a breakneck pace until its heartbreaking yet inevitable conclusion. I simply couldn’t put this book down.”—Alicia Elliott, author of A Mind Spread Out on the Ground
“I devoured this wild ride of a novel about one woman’s outrageous web of lies and the people caught in it. The Fake is a mordantly funny tale, as enthralling as it is emotionally astute.”—Antonia Angress, author of Sirens & Muses
“I read Zoe Whittall’s newest novel in a single fevered page-turning session. At once a romp, a cautionary tale, and a thriller, The Fake taps so deeply into our human foibles, into the many ways that loss and grief can make us vulnerable in both friendship and in love. Whittall’s writing is as sharp and funny as ever. I loved this novel.”—Amy Stuart, author of the Still Mine series
“Cammie is one of my new favorite villains. We have all met a Cammie. Maybe we have even been seduced by one. You will be by this one, and The Fake, Whittall’s live-wire novel that had me turning pages late into the night.”—Jordan Tannahill, author of The Listeners
“Whittall’s knockout novel is a multigenerational riot of grrrlhood and womanhood, a brisk and wistful tour through the ambivalence of responsibility.”—Oprah Daily
“The Spectacular is an homage to womanhood, motherhood, sexuality, and queerness as it chronicles the lives of three ferociously strong protagonists who are wildly different from one another.”—Associated Press “Zoe Whittall’s taut novel
"The Spectacular has all the trappings to become the season’s dishiest read. It’s also a gem of literary fiction. . . . In Whittall’s smart and capable hands, these unconventional women are given the space to experience their full, complicated lives.”—BookPage
“An occasionally melancholy often darkly comedic story from a sharply talented writer, The Spectacular is a vibrant homage to living life on your own terms.”—PureWow
“Whittall addresses motherhood and autonomy in ways I’ve never seen done before. A fascinating stunner of a novel, The Spectacular is exactly that: spectacular!”—Kristen Arnett, author of With Teeth
“This book will leave you with a brilliant roar inside your chest—Whittall’s prose is afire with the most complex and daring forms of empathy.”—Alissa Nutting, author of Made for Love
“Just imagine this book dog-eared, spine-cracked, pages limp from use, living by your bedside—because from the moment you open The Spectacular, you’ll happily succumb to a totally absorbing contemporary epic with characters and social worlds that are Edith Wharton–level dimensional but as relatable as your own uncannily recognizable self.”—Jordy Rosenberg, author of Confessions of the Fox “This is a novel about how
“No Credit River is a masterful expression of queer heartache."—Amber Dawn, author of My Art Is Killing Me and Other PoemsAuthor Biography
ZOE WHITTALL is the author of the short story collection Wild Failure, and five bestselling novels including The Fake, The Spectacular, The Best Kind of People, Holding Still for as Long as Possible, and Bottle Rocket Hearts. Her previous poetry collections include Pre-cordial Thump, The Emily Valentine Poems, and The Best Ten Minutes of Your Life. Her work has won a Lambda Literary Award, the Writers’ Trust Dayne Ogilvie Award, and been shortlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize. She has worked as a TV writer on the Emmy-Award winning comedy show Schitt’s Creek and The Baroness Von Sketch Show for which she won a 2018 Canadian Screen Award. She was born in the Eastern Townships of Quebec and now lives in Prince Edward County, Ontario.