For me, and I think so many women, there was this expectation that I would have my life sorted by the time I reached 40. Author Alexandra Potter on the inspiration for her bestselling novel

Stories offer hope, writes Pat St. Germain.

The Captive

Fiona King Foster HarperCollins Canada

The near future looks plausibly bleak in this knockout debut novel from Toronto-based short-fiction writer

Fiona King Foster. Aptly described as “rural noir,” The Captive is set 30 years after rural separatists parted ways with a city-centric government to form their own sovereign state — a state that collapsed just five years later. It's a hardscrabble life for farmers Brooke and Milo and their two young daughters, and things get a whole lot worse after the adults take the family's only horse into town for supplies. News of a fugitive with a bounty on his head sends Brooke into a panic when she recognizes the killer's last name. At 288 pages, it's all thriller, no filler. It's on sale Jan. 12.

Our Darkest Night: A Novel of Italy and the Second World War Jennifer Robson HarperCollins Canada

Toronto writer Jennifer Robson's latest novel plays on a familiar theme, as a wartime heroine finds love in a near-hopeless place — an impoverished farm in Nazi-occupied Italy. The daughter of a Jewish doctor living in a Venice ghetto, Antonina Mazin has to leave her parents behind when a close friend, a Catholic priest, arranges an escape with the help of former seminary student Nico Gerardi. Nico takes Antonina home to his family's farm, where he introduces her as his wife. But after a local Nazi official's suspicions are aroused, the threat of violence becomes all too real. Robson's descriptions of inhuman Nazi atrocities and their victims' relentless suffering are the price of historical accuracy.

So-Called Normal: A Memoir of Family, Depression and Resilience

Mark Henick

HarperCollins Canada Prominent mental-health advocate Mark Henick was about to take a potentially fatal plunge from a bridge in 2003 when a stranger's grip pulled him back from the edge. At the time, he was a teen suffering from depression and anxiety. Today, he's a speaker and health professional whose 2013 TEDx Talk Why We Need to Talk About Suicide has chalked up more than 6.6 million views. His book expands on that talk, dealing with his childhood in Cape Breton, his mental-health problems and his recovery. In the midst of a pandemic that's sparked an uptick in mental-health challenges, its Jan. 12 release date makes it a timely conversation starter, ahead of Bell Let's Talk Day on Jan. 28.