LADDER TO HEAVEN

In Welch’s novel, set after a catastrophic earthquake, a recovering addict must confront her past and find the children she abandoned.

A tectonic shift devastates North America’s West Coast by causing a massive earthquake—9.3 on the Richter scale—and multiple tsunamis, thus reshaping the world order. The loss of life is catastrophic, but the survivors suddenly have new abilities, including the power to understand the languages of animals (“birds were tiresomely repetitive, dogs laconic and positive”), as well as all human tongues. Del Campion, a Canadian mother of three and recovering addict, is traveling to Vancouver Island to find the family she abandoned after the quake. Del tells her life story piecemeal—first to sea lions and, eventually, to a sympathetic human being. She was a sensitive child who found a passion for horseback riding as a teen, and she met her future husband at a stable. But after having three unplanned children, Del became increasingly unhappy with her life. A riding accident hospitalized her, and she struggled with a prescription drug addiction. After the earthquake, things worsened: Her spouse and son went missing in the relief effort, her eldest daughter accidentally burned down their barn and house, and her youngest daughter got involved with cultish religious neighbors. As she locates each family member, missing pieces of her story surface, and with each revelation, she must confront unspeakable events that occurred while she was high or absent. Over the course of this novel, Welch’s spare, evocative prose capably illustrates the various players’ everyday lives (Del’s mother “left business behind in Alberta and in a burst of domesticity bought cookbooks, aprons and a stand mixer”) and also ably gets across the changes to the natural world. The magical realism of human-animal communication adds additional charm and moments of humor that contribute a lighter touch to a narrative that’s otherwise heavy with guilt, regret, and grief.

A haunting, evocative exploration of addiction, redemption, and the stories we tell ourselves.