A powerful novel about drugs and drug lords from one of Canada's finest poets.
A woman is sentenced to death for the most heinous crime of all: killing her own child.
This is the story of how a talent for Spanish translation took her from a husband and a home in a respectable part of Vancouver, to being force-fed cocaine as a hostage on an island off the coast of Colombia, and ultimately to a fateful flight in a small plane filled with the rich scent of orchids.
On death row, she shares her life with Rainy and Frenchy, the two best friends you could "hope to never have". As her terrifying story of kidnapping, addiction and violence plays out, so too does the friendship between these three women as they endure the harrowing wait for death.
This fierce and gripping novel reveals an uncompromising world where everything is up for grabs. A world where the rules are different, and death is just a few short steps away.
