In Now I Shall Leave You to Your Fate, Jean Marc Ah-Sen, Liz Harmer, Sophie McCreesh, and Fawn Parker explore struggles in psychological crisis.

In “Some Recent Experiences” by Fawn Parker, a woman navigates an eating disorder while dealing with relationship strife, professional jealousy, and new motherhood. A writer returning home is confronted with memories of her hospitalization in a psychiatric ward in Liz Harmer’s “Lighthouse”. Sophie McCreesh’s “My Close Friends” sees a young recluse negotiate neuroses and social media presence to come to terms with loneliness. The collection closes with “Busybody” by Jean Marc Ah-Sen in which a social outcast agrees to spy on his roommate on behalf of her ex-lover.

With humour and agility moving through dark themes, this quartet of novellas asks subtle questions about the social construction of self and the perception of mental illness. What is considered sane and why is self-disgust so powerful? How much is mental well-being determined by accepted understandings of success and failure? And how do biological and environmental stressors contribute to the construction of mental illness—its perception and manifestation?