Books by this author

The Perpetual Ending (Vintage Canada, 2004)
The Perpetual Ending (Knopf Canada, 2003)
Water Wings (Vintage Canada, 2002)
Water Wings (Knopf Canada, 2001)


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Water Wings: “Kristen den Hartog’s dark, tender first novel reveals her as a sort of literary younger sister to Alice Munro [with] a knack for dropping shocks into a plot as casually as pebbles from a dock.”
—Quill and Quire

Water Wings: “Water Wings is laced with the mysteries of the world that holds the small town lives of young Hannah, Vivian and Wren. Kristen den Hartog renders this coming-of-age tale with a delicate yet unflinching touch, capturing her characters’ awe and aching at the wonder and brutality of life. Like the playful butterfly kisses they give to one another, Water Wings enchants and lingers.”
—Kerri Sakamoto

Water Wings: “Den Hartog weaves an affecting tale about fathers and mothers and sisters…. What makes Water Wings worth [reading] is the way she uses memory, shifting perspectives and narrative voices to draw nuanced characters, and the manner and style with which she paces her storytelling and reveals her plot details in tiny allotments.”
—The Globe and Mail (Sandra Martin)

Water Wings: “A delicately rendered first novel [with a] magical quality.”
—The Globe and Mail (Krista Foss)

Water Wings: “Glorious…. She treats her characters with such dignity…. Water Wings [is] a heartening study of people who play the hand life has dealt them with surprising good humour and not a little cunning…. Den Hartog knows that beneath the cheesy veneer of proletariat life lies enough genuine pathos and random kindness to fill a discount warehouse…. She treats her characters with such dignity that at first you don’t notice the backdrop of cast-off furniture and littered front yards… Water Wings flirts with the conventions of the southern Ontario gothic … but on the whole prefers the transcendent to the dismal…. A novel of considerable delicacy.”
—National Post

Water Wings: “Exuberant…. A splashy debut…. A lively, funny read – sometimes tender, sometimes mordant, often both…. She has succeeded beautifully. Den Hartog is the mistress of the insightful non-sequitur, and she writes about childhood trauma in the same surreal way it actually presents itself in life…. Den Hartog allows her narrative to flit here and there to wonderful effect. Her writing style is as intricate, as gorgeous – and as reluctant to settle – as the butterflies that are her central metaphor. Water Wings is a work of probing, idiosyncratic intelligence and emotional generosity.”
—Calgary Herald

Water Wings: “Water Wings [is] a contemplative and sensitive first novel…The author…proves adept at peeling away layers of her characters’ lives to expose the common tragedy at their core.”
—Hamilton Spectator, 24 Mar 2001

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