Claire Ross Dunn

At Last Count Claire Ross Dunn

For readers who love Mark Haddon, Miriam Toews, and Sally Rooney

Paisley Ratchford is trying to keep it together, but her world is about to be turned upside down: In six weeks, the Toronto apartment building she lives in will be demolished. Thirty-nine years old, with nowhere to go and no one to turn to, she tries to regain possession of her childhood home on Amherst Island, a tight-knit community at the eastern end of Lake Ontario. Doubly unfortunate for Paisley, the lawyer assigned to assist her is her old classmate and tormentor, Garnet Mulligan. It's more than enough to reignite the obsessive-compulsive disorder that has only ever offered Paisley a semblance of control. Her old compulsion to count in sets of eight had little effect on thwarting her bullies, the crisis engulfing her parents, and the mental illness that caused her mother to open their home to a horde of feral cats-all of which return to haunt her.



Having Garnet represent her case feels risky, but the impending eviction forces her to take a chance, and it pays off: by facing Garnet and her past, she learns that, although her OCD will never disappear, it can be managed, especially if she's got a shot at a future, a roof over her head, and the possibility of love.



At Last Count is a wise and often laugh-out-loud funny tale that proves we don't always need to believe everything our brain tells us.