The Sweet Edge

I picked up The Sweet Edge by Alison Pick by browsing. It was on the new shelf in the library, and the summary on the back looked interesting--I had never heard of it, but I thought I'd give it a try. The story is about Ellen and Adam, a couple on the rocks who decide to take a break. Adam goes to take a trip riding the rapids in Alaska, alone, and Ellen stays in Toronto. Each character is finely drawn, despite the omniscent narration, and the language used is exquisite. Pick, a Canadian author, is also a poet, so I'm not surprised that she has an ear for a well-crafted sentence. The only drawback is that Pick doesn't change tenses when she moves to a flashback scene (the entire novel is in present tense) so it can be a little confusing to follow the timeline of the story. Still, it's moving, and kept me hooked to the end.