Agnes, Murderess - Freehand Books

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Agnes, Murderess

  • Publication Date: September 7, 2019
  • EAN: 9781988298474
  • 304 pages; 8½" x 11"

Winner of the Vine Award for Canadian Jewish Literature

Agnes, Murderess is a graphic novel inspired by the bloody legend of Agnes McVee, a roadhouse owner, madam and serial killer in the Cariboo region of British Columbia in the late nineteenth century. Fascinated by this legend—which originated in a 1970s guide to buried treasure in BC, and has never been verified—Sarah Leavitt has imagined an entirely new story for the mysterious Agnes: her immigration to Canada from an isolated Scottish Island; her complex entanglement with shiny things; and her terrifying grandmother, Gormul, who haunts Agnes’s dreams and waking life.

Leavitt puts a decidedly queer twist on the story, moving from women’s passionate friendships in the gardens of St John’s Wood to female relationships in the Canadian wild. At the same time, the book grapples with the dangerous pre-conceived notions held by settlers that the country was a “new world,” free of ghosts and history. Agnes, Murderess presents a tortured, complicated woman struggling to escape her past. It is a spine-chilling tale of ghosts and murder, friendship and betrayal, love and greed, fate and choice.

“[A] delightful feminist gothic horror graphic novel.” VANCOUVER SUN

“I could not put Agnes, Murderess down. Gothic horror meets feminist history in this deceptively spare novel of a 19th century Scottish waif turned serial killer. Along the way, the characters and the reader alike are haunted by considerations of power stolen away and seized back, colonialism, loneliness, desire, obsession, friendship, and even love.” ANNABEL LYON

“In spare line art as stark as antique woodcuts, Sarah Leavitt’s Agnes, Murderess achieves the difficult goal of making historical fiction relatable, relevant, and alive. Agnes, who may or may not have been an actual mass murderer in 19th-century frontier Canada, is a sympathetic anti-hero. The story’s theme of the New World as a wilderness free of old ghosts is thoughtful and provocative, and Leavitt surveys the fine line separating supernatural horrors from the horrors we’re capable of all by ourselves. Sometimes the monsters chase us; other times, we are the monsters.” BRIAN FIES

Agnes, Murderess haunted me in a way only brilliant stories can do. What a rich portrait of a mysterious and exceptional woman! Sarah Leavitt’s drawings are so delicate, fragile and beautiful that I feel for every single character in this book. I want to get them warm clothes and a bowl of soup. I wished them everlasting happiness and peace but I am old enough to know that this is a childish wish that doesn’t make a great and epic tale like Agnes, Murderess.ANNA HAIFISCH

“Once again, Sarah Leavitt wields a devastating line in both picture and prose. Agnes, Murderess is a chilling, deeply moving account of loneliness and the search for peace—of evil in its plainest garb: the absense of love.” ALISSA YORK author of The Naturalist

“Amazing use of images and a great, well-rounded story. Thoroughly impressive.” KATHERENA VERMETTE author of A Girl Called Echo

Vine Awards for Canadian Jewish Literature, 2020 (winner)

News & Events

Agnes, Murderess wins $10,000 Vine Award
November 18, 2020: Award Ceremony (online) for the 2020 Vine Awards for Canadian Jewish Literature
Agnes, Murderess shortlisted for the Vine Awards for Canadian Jewish Literature
Sarah Leavitt nominated for a Joe Shuster Award
Agnes, Murderess shortlisted for the Doug Wright Award for Best Book
Agnes, Murderess review in The Comics Journal
Aug. 13-16: Sarah Leavitt at the Sunshine Coast Festival of the Written Arts
Feb. 12: Sarah Leavitt at the JCC Jewish Book Festival
CBC Books interviews Sarah Leavitt
Vancouver Sun reviews Agnes, Murderess
Agnes, Murderess reviewed by I've Read This
Sarah Leavitt on North by Northwest
Oct. 24-26: Sarah Leavitt at the Vancouver Writers Fest
Agnes, Murderess reviewed in the Georgia Straight
Agnes, Murderess on CBC's recommended reading list
L is for Leavitt
CBC Books is excited about Agnes, Murderess
Available Now: Agnes, Murderess

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