Heartache and Other Natural Shocks Format: Hardcover. This item is unavailable.Heartache and Other Natural Shocks Format: Hardcover

When 15-year-old Julia Epstein and her Anglophone family flee Montreal in October 1970, she struggles to adjust to a new life in the suburban wasteland of Toronto. Next door lives Carla Cabrielli, who seems to Julia impossibly cool and impossibly adept at getting what she wants. Julia and Carla get on a collision course, not only for the same role in the school production of Hamlet, but also for the leading man. Issues of the main characters mental health are sensitively handled; a topic increasingly being discussed in the YA genre.

Glenda Leznoff is a writer, college professor and artist. She launched her career as a playwright; wrote for film, television and animation; became involved with magazine and non-fiction projects; and continues to write fiction and children's literature. She is currently an instructor in the Creative Writing Department at Douglas College. As a visual artist, her paintings have been shown in galleries and collections across North America. Glenda lives in Vancouver, where she gardens, dances and cooks sumptuous meals for friends and family.