After a severe winter storm and extended power failure, thousands become trapped in their homes during one of the coldest weeks of the year. For one small group of people, thrown together by catastrophe, a state of anxiety and claustrophobia follows as they discover no precautions have been made for a disaster of this magnitude. When the darkness and cold stretch on, endurance turns to despair and plans for survival begin to emerge as Fred, a fifteen-year-old boy from England, is forced to take charge in unpredictable ways.

Seal Intestine Raincoat offers a cautionary tale for our times, with its bleak portrayal of socio-economic collapse resulting from an unsustainable way of life. It also unearths the powerful human instincts that convert helpless fear into the desire to adapt.

Praise for Seal Intestine Raincoat
"Writing with a brittle clarity that leaves no shadows for hiding, Chard has woven a starkly inviting tale of courage and desperation that demonstrates the oft-disturbing range of actions the human animal is capable of."
~ Sue Karp, Vue Weekly

>p>Rosie Chard grew up on the edge of the North Downs, a range of low hills south of London, UK. After studying Anthropology and Environmental Biology she went on to qualify as a landscape architect at the University of Greenwich and practiced for several years in England, Denmark and Canada. She and her family emigrated to Winnipeg in 2005 where she qualified as an English Language teacher at the University of Manitoba. She is now based in Brighton, England where she currently works as a freelance editor and language teacher. Her first novel, Seal Intestine Raincoat, was published in 2009 by NeWest Press; winning the 2010 Trade Fiction Book Award at the Alberta Book Publishing Awards, and receiving an honourable mention for the Sunburst Fiction Award. She was also shortlisted in 2010 for the John Hirsch Award for Most Promising Manitoba Writer. Her second novel, The Insistent Garden, won the 2014 Margaret Laurence Prize for Fiction at the Manitoba Book Awards.

More information about Rosie can be found on her website, www.rosiechard.com, or at her blog, www.rosiechard.org.

Rosie Chard's profile page

• Short-listed, John Hirsch Award for Most Promising Manitoba Writer
• Winner, Trade Fiction Book Award at the Alberta Book Publishing Awards