Consent by Canadian novelist Annabel Lyon (The Sweet Girl) is an insightful and unnerving piece of literary fiction that follows two women as they grapple with their guilt and despair in the aftermaths of their sisters' deaths. Sara, who has spent years pursuing a career as an academic, returns home after her mother's death to care for her mentally disabled sister, Mattie. She is distressed to learn that Mattie has married her mother's handyman, Robert, and forces him out of the house on the grounds that Mattie couldn't legally consent to the relationship. Years later, Sara is devastated by Mattie's accidental death, brought on by Robert's unexpected reappearance. Meanwhile, promising graduate student Saskia is drawn away from her studies when her volatile sister Jenny is paralyzed after a car accident. Following Jenny's death, Saskia discovers hints of a secret past that sets her on a collision course with both Sara and Robert.
A slow-burn exploration of love and duty, Consent is a precisely crafted, emotionally resonant accomplishment with an explosive ending. In poignant but unsentimental prose, Lyon guides readers through Sara's and Saskia's development, their complex relationships with their respective sisters, and the emotional nuances of both caretaking and losing a sibling. Far from being melodramatic, the novel manages to keep a cool head even while conveying the extremities of human experience. And even as Sara and Saskia become grounding forces for the story, the novel keeps readers always guessing about what the two of them will do next. --Alice Martin, freelance writer and editor