You Don’t Have to Die in the End by Anita Daher

Despite not having met author Anita Daher, I felt as though I knew her. As Chair of The Writers’ Union of Canada, Anita’s regular, written updates are enjoyable—informative and inspirational, yet conversational—as though chatting with an insightful friend over coffee. So when I purchased her latest, You Don’t Have to Die in the End, I felt the comfort one expects when settling in to read the work of an author you trust.

This, from the overview:

Eugenia Grimm is a tough girl living in a tough town at the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. She drinks and fights and pushes against expectations. She is also hurting. After her father died by suicide on her eight birthday her older brothers drifted away and her mother up and left when she turned 14. Eugenia has not made the best choices. After a last-straw violent incident and faced with the possibility of incarceration, she is sentenced to time at an Intensive Support and Supervision Program located at a remote mountain ranch. There, she begins to make connections, explore difficult truths, and might even turn things around-until a series of events pull her into a dark spiral she may not have the strength to resist.

I like an author who knows, truly knows, their character—is familiar with their voice—introducing you immediately through that character’s actions.

We’d been bored and looking for trouble when this cowboy stumbled out of The Round Up roadhouse on Main … When their grandfather sold them this ’74 Nova for cheap it was in pretty good shape. Not cherry, but okay.

And with that, we have a setting, mood, and character, or in this case, characters. A fictional locale but one utterly familiar to anyone (and everyone) who’s lived in rural Canada, particularly within tobacco-spitting distance of the prairies.

This is a book for most ages, although recommended, more or less, for teens and up. Not a typical go-to for me but again, when a story, characters and place are intriguing, I enjoy anything written well. Which is how I feel about Anita Daher’s You Don’t Have to Die in the End. Like many novelists, perhaps I have met Anita Daher now, in part, albeit through a writer’s gossamer of fictitious characters, that watery murk we use, perhaps, to reveal tiny slices of ourselves. Whether reading for pleasure, escape or insight, like me, you’ll be pleased with this purchase.

About the Author: Anita Daher is an author, screenwriter, producer, show host and actor based in Winnipeg, MB. She has been entrenched in the book publishing industry since 1995 and has been published in print, audio and e-book format in Canada, the United States, and Europe. You Don’t Have to Die in the End is her fourteenth novel, and fifteenth book. Anita presents at conferences and schools across Canada and is current Chair of The Writers Union of Canada (TWUC). When not word-wrangling she enjoys inhabiting characters on stage and screen.

Paperback : 272 pages
ISBN-10 : 177337043X
ISBN-13 : 978-1773370439
Publisher: Yellow Dog (April 1, 2020)

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Bill Arnott

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Bill Arnott is the bestselling author of A Season on Vancouver Island, theGone Viking travelogues, andA Perfect Day for a Walk: The History, Cultures, and Communities of Vancouver, on Foot(Arsenal Pulp Press, Fall 2024). Recipient of a Fellowship at London’s Royal Geographical Society for his expeditions, Bill’s a frequent presenter and contributor to magazines, universities, podcasts, TV and radio. When not trekking with a small pack and journal, Bill can be found on Canada’s west coast, where he lives near the sea on Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh land.