EBOOK
About
Alma Alt, the sheltered youngest daughter of an interfaith, interracial Jewish-Mexican couple, rarely ventures far from her home on a wealthy tree-lined street in Ottawa, where nothing ever happens. The one time she did, striking out to visit her older sister, Marnie, in Montreal, things ended in disaster as she found out that beautiful, blonde Marnie had been lying about their family's background, trying to pass herself off as white. The unintended fallout from that betrayal leads to a devastating accident, one that claims Alma's arm and someone's life.
Alma is now stuck in a holding pattern, unable to move past the grief, trauma, and injury she suffered that night, all while the bonds that hold her family together crumble, the guilt and resentment between the sisters simmering beneath the surface. But Alma's life is turned upside down by an encounter just steps from home with an impossible person, the boy she watched die.
With keen human insight and stark and honest prose, Other Evolutions is a literary debut with a dark, speculative twist that reveals the uncanny in the mundane, seeing us through the worst parts of our lives toward the weird and wonderful things right in our own backyard.
A searing and dark debut novel that doesn't bother much with the boundaries of reality and unreality. Protagonist Alma's life is derailed by a car accident and the death of a friend. When she encounters him years later, she discovers the impossible truth of his apparent resurrection.
Rebecca Hirsch Garcia lives in Ottawa, ON. An O. Henry Award–winning author, she has been published in The Threepenny Review, PRISM international, The Dark, and elsewhere. Her debut collection, The Girl Who Cried Diamonds & Other Stories (2023), was the runner-up for the Danuta Gleed Literary Award and shortlisted for an Ottawa Book Award. Other Evolutions is her debut novel.
Sales and Market Bullets
• LITERARY BOOK WITH A DARK SPECULATIVE TWIST: Rebecca Hirsch Garcia's work is bleak and pessimistic, and she slips into the uncanny very easily. This allows her to explore mental and emotional stagnation, the delusion of the magic of youth, and the folly and delight in attempting to recapture it. Other Evolutions is a searing and dark debut novel that doesn't bother much with the boundaries of reality.
• DIVERSE VOICES: The protagonist, Alma, is Jewish and Mexican, sharing a background with author Rebecca Hirsch Garcia. Hirsch Garcia speaks fluent French.
• FOR READERS OF: Bad Cree (Jessica Johns); We Spread, Foe, and I'm Thinking of Ending Things (Iain Reid); An Ordinary Violence (Adriana Chartrand), The Glass Hotel (Emily St. John Mandel), and The Vanishing Half (Brit Bennett).
• ACCOLADES FOR HIRSCH GARCIA: Shortlisted for the Writers' Union of Canada Danuta Gleed Literary Award (2023) and a finalist for the Ottawa Book Awards (2024), Hirsch Garcia's short story collection was positively received and highly praised.
Alma is now stuck in a holding pattern, unable to move past the grief, trauma, and injury she suffered that night, all while the bonds that hold her family together crumble, the guilt and resentment between the sisters simmering beneath the surface. But Alma's life is turned upside down by an encounter just steps from home with an impossible person, the boy she watched die.
With keen human insight and stark and honest prose, Other Evolutions is a literary debut with a dark, speculative twist that reveals the uncanny in the mundane, seeing us through the worst parts of our lives toward the weird and wonderful things right in our own backyard.
A searing and dark debut novel that doesn't bother much with the boundaries of reality and unreality. Protagonist Alma's life is derailed by a car accident and the death of a friend. When she encounters him years later, she discovers the impossible truth of his apparent resurrection.
Rebecca Hirsch Garcia lives in Ottawa, ON. An O. Henry Award–winning author, she has been published in The Threepenny Review, PRISM international, The Dark, and elsewhere. Her debut collection, The Girl Who Cried Diamonds & Other Stories (2023), was the runner-up for the Danuta Gleed Literary Award and shortlisted for an Ottawa Book Award. Other Evolutions is her debut novel.
Sales and Market Bullets
• LITERARY BOOK WITH A DARK SPECULATIVE TWIST: Rebecca Hirsch Garcia's work is bleak and pessimistic, and she slips into the uncanny very easily. This allows her to explore mental and emotional stagnation, the delusion of the magic of youth, and the folly and delight in attempting to recapture it. Other Evolutions is a searing and dark debut novel that doesn't bother much with the boundaries of reality.
• DIVERSE VOICES: The protagonist, Alma, is Jewish and Mexican, sharing a background with author Rebecca Hirsch Garcia. Hirsch Garcia speaks fluent French.
• FOR READERS OF: Bad Cree (Jessica Johns); We Spread, Foe, and I'm Thinking of Ending Things (Iain Reid); An Ordinary Violence (Adriana Chartrand), The Glass Hotel (Emily St. John Mandel), and The Vanishing Half (Brit Bennett).
• ACCOLADES FOR HIRSCH GARCIA: Shortlisted for the Writers' Union of Canada Danuta Gleed Literary Award (2023) and a finalist for the Ottawa Book Awards (2024), Hirsch Garcia's short story collection was positively received and highly praised.