This Unlikely Soil

THIS UNLIKELY SOIL, the sophomore collection from Lambda Literary Award finalist Andrea Routley, is a quintet of linked novellas exploring the failures of kindness and connection among a rural west-coast community of queer women. In Midden, Naomi, recently split from Rita and apathetically venturing into online dating, sifts through the remains of past relationships after Rita accuses her of emotional abuse. In Appropriate Behaviour, Freddie, suffering from a brain injury, seeks resolution with a neighbour after his dog bites her, but a lifetime of mixed messages yields disastrous results. In Guided Walk, Miriams latest clumsy infatuation pushes her to change her life, to finally come out on a guided walk with her cousin. When her cousin beats her to it, Miriam descends into pettiness before finding her way out of the woods. THIS UNLIKELY SOIL, a finalist for the 2020 Malahat Review Novella Prize, is the story of Elana, who, following the sudden death of her mother, attempts to manufacture a meaningful relationship with a former partners teenaged son. The quintet concludes with Damage, the sequel to Midden. Told from Ritas perspective, this story explores classist exploitations within many relationships and asks what our responsibilities are in saying no.

In This Unlikely Soil, prize-winning writer Andrea Routley delivers stories of queer women navigating love and life against the lush, isolated backdrop of Canada’s West Coast.

A dog that bites, a bear suffering from a hemorrhoid, an aggressive willow tree, berried-up Dungeness crabs and erotic mussels… The dense West-Coast landscape of This Unlikely Soil echoes the fraught search for connection of the rural-dwelling queer characters in this quintet of novellas. Finalist for the Malahat Review Novella Prize, this sophomore collection from Lambda Literary Award-finalist Andrea Routley explores the queer state of wandering, violence, and loss with surprising humour and compassion.