Lake BurntshoreLake Burntshore

A funny and emotionally resonant coming-of-age novel about one summer of momentous social and political change at a Jewish sleepover camp It's the summer of 2013 and 21-year-old Ruby, a counselor at Camp Burntshore, can't wait to supervise a rowdy cabin of 11-year-olds, smoke weed by the fire, and argue about which city make the best bagels. But when Brent, the camp owner's son, hires Israeli soldiers to deal with a staffing shortfall, Ruby, a committed anti-Zionist, must decide if she's willing to jeopardize her place at Burntshore to fight Brent over the contentious issues of Jewish belonging and settler colonialism, even as she finds herself falling in love with one of the soldiers, the sweetly handsome Etai. Soon it becomes clear that the conflict is not just about the camp's internal divisions but also about Burntshore's relationship with the neighboring Black Spruce First Nation, strained because of Brent's larger scheme to buy the Crown land surrounding the lake. As campers swim, go canoe tripping, and stage an over-the-top musical, Ruby has to contend with her feelings for Etai while simultaneously trying to save her beloved camp from greed and colonialism. A social satire, romance, and political commentary all in one, Lake Burntshore celebrates the contemporary Jewish world through its most iconic symbol - the often idyllic yet always dramatic summer camp. A comedic and heartrending novel about a summer of momentous change at a Jewish sleepover camp in Southern Ontario's cottage country. It celebrates, satirizes, and complicates the contemporary Jewish world through the rarefied locale of a Canadian summer camp. Aaron Kreuter is the author of five books, including the poetry collection Shifting Baseline Syndrome, a 2022 finalist for the Governor General's Literary Award. His work has been shortlisted for two Vine Awards for Jewish Literature, a Raymond Souster Award, and a ReLit Award. He lives in Toronto. Sales and Market Bullets • CELEBRATES, INVESTIGATES, SATIRIZES, AND COMPLICATES THE CONTEMPORARY JEWISH WORLD: A deeply funny and heart-rending novel about a summer of momentous change at a Jewish sleepover camp, tackling serious topics like contemporary Jewish politics, settler colonialism, romance, and activism in a complacent world. • PERFECT FOR BOOKCLUBS: Social satire at its best, with a cast of characters who misbehave, try to do better, and fundamentally change over the course of 10 weeks. • FOR FANS OF: HBO's Yellowjackets and the cult classic Dirty Dancing. • FOR READERS OF: Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow (Gabrielle Zevin), Groundskeeping (Lee Cole), The Lost Girls of Camp Forevermore (Kim Fu), The Secret History (Donna Tartt), Everything Is Illuminated (Jonathan Safran Foer). • AN AUTHOR CONNECTED TO POLITICS: Aaron Kreuter's work explores Jewish North American fiction, diaspora, and Israel/Palestine and has been nominated for numerous awards, including the 2022 Governor General's Award for Poetry, the 2023 Vine Award for Jewish Literature, and the 2023 League of Canadian Poets' Raymond Souster Award. • NOTE FROM THE EDITOR: "The novel is funny and sweeping, intimate and epic, poetic and comedic. The content is extraordinary, but the foundation of Lake Burntshore is the quality of Aaron's writing, which is sharp, poetic, and always precise. The scenes where he describes the landscape actually take my breath away, and that is no small feat given that nature has been described a million times! This is an important part of the book because the land and the camp are so pivotal to the story and are characters themselves. Aaron does a beautiful job writing the desires and bodily experiences of young people, especially young women. This is, as I know, very hard to do for adults in midlife, and he does it with great tact and gentleness without sacrificing the comedy or the honesty."