Astra

The novel Astra is an outstanding debut that reveals the different faces of one mysterious woman, seen through the eyes of ten people she meets throughout her life.
After a childhood spent with her apathetic, daydreaming father in a rural commune in a remote part of British Columbia, Astra Brine leaves for Calgary to find her own path. Her life becomes a study of the fine line between dependence and love, need and desire. Her path crosses with other people – these encounters are often brief, but always intense – who want to alternately save her, control her, change her, become her, or escape from her. There is a childhood friend who is frightened by Astra's unpredictable behaviour; a stranger who saves her from life on the streets, only to have to deal with his own demons; a mother who hires Astra as an au pair as her own marriage is falling apart; a man who marries her after a very short acquaintance… All these encounters reveal uncomfortable but important truths about who we are and what we crave.
While Astra herself remains the fleeting yet captivating axis around which the individual chapters revolve, her story reminds us of the profound impact an individual can have on the people around them, and the power struggles that take place in all our relationships, even the most intimate ones. This exquisitely constructed and revealing novel explores what we are willing to give to others and what we take from them, and how well we really know the people we love most.
The book was longlisted for the 2021 Giller Prize.