What We Both Know by Fawn Parker

Fawn Parker’s gripping and profoundly disturbing novel What We Both Know does not relinquish its secrets willingly.

Parker’s narrator, Hillary Greene, is the daughter of author Marcus Greene, who over several decades amassed a sizable following as a literary novelist under the name “Baby Davidson.” Baby, now at the end of his career, is progressing through stages of dementia and Hillary finds herself in an unenviable place: back in the family home—where until recently Baby was living alone—as her father’s live-in caregiver. But there’s an added burden resting on Hillary’s shoulders. Before dementia took hold, Baby committed to writing a memoir. His agent is expecting a manuscript.

“Fawn Parker’s dark, edgy narrative has a gothic vibe and is haunted by a lurking sense of calamity.”

As her father’s condition deteriorates and his memory slips a little further each day, Hillary realizes her father is simply not up to the task. To see that the project gets done, she’ll have to do it herself. An aspiring writer, Hillary does not really mind taking this on. After all, it’s an opportunity for her to write something that’s guaranteed to be published. It’s also a chance to tell the truth. But how much truth can the public stomach? How much truth can her father’s reputation withstand?

The emotionally turbulent story that Parker has concocted swirls around Hillary’s suspicions regarding the nature of Baby’s relationship with Pauline, Baby’s other daughter and Hillary’s sister, who took her own life a year or so before the novel begins. But Hillary’s recollections of their childhood are hazy. Pauline never confessed anything to her sister. Hillary did not personally witness any inappropriate conduct and was never the object of her father’s lust. And Hillary’s mother isn’t talking. So Hillary digs into the past, going through old documents and photographs, which trigger more memories. She spends much of the novel remembering, examining her own relationship with Pauline, rehashing instances of shared confidence, sifting through Pauline’s words and actions for insinuations that their father was a monster. And in the process, she discovers more about Baby, about Pauline and about herself than she’s comfortable knowing.

Fawn Parker’s dark, edgy narrative has a gothic vibe and is haunted by a lurking sense of calamity, by riddles within mysteries within enigmas, by damning truths that remain tantalizingly out of reach. Throughout, Parker’s prose is compulsively readable: lyrical, precise, assured, psychologically rich and studded with phrases that linger in the memory. Be forewarned however, there’s very little in What We Both Know to soothe the soul. This is a novel with many disquieting moments.

FAWN PARKER is the author of the novels Set-Point and Dumb-Show and the poetry collection Jolie Laide. She is co-founder of BAD NUDES Magazine and Bad Books Press, and president at The Parker Agency. Her story, “Feed Machine,” was longlisted for the 2020 Writers’ Trust McClelland & Stewart Journey Prize. Parker lives between Toronto, Ontario, and Fredericton, New Brunswick.

Publisher ‏ : ‎ McClelland & Stewart (May 3 2022)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 248 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0771096739
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0771096730

Ian Colford

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Ian Colford’s short fiction has appeared in many literary publications, in print and online. His work has been shortlisted for the Thomas H. Raddall Atlantic Fiction Award, the Journey Prize, the Danuta Gleed Literary Award, and others. His latest novel, The Confessions of Joseph Blanchard, was the winner of the 2022 Guernica Prize and was published by Guernica Editions in 2023. He lives in Halifax.