Written in luminous prose, The Whirlpool is a haunting tale set in Niagara Falls, Ontario, in the summer of 1889. This is the season of reckless river stunts, a time when the undertakers widow is busy with funerals, her days shadowed by her young sons curious silence. Across the street in Kicks Hotel, where Fleda and her husband, David McDougal, have temporary rooms, Fleda dreams of the place above the whirlpool where she first encountered the poet, a man who enters her life and, unwittingly, changes everything. As the summer progresses, the lives of these characters become entangled, and darker, more sinister currents gain momentum.The Whirlpool, Jane Urquharts first novel, received Le prix du meilleur livre tranger (Best Foreign Book Award) in France and marked the brilliant debut of a major voice in Canadian fiction.From the Trade Paperback edition.