Suture by Nic Brewer

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Book Club Prompts for Suture – View and Download.

To make her films, Eva must take out her eyes and use them as batteries. To make her art, Finn must cut open her chest and remove her lungs and heart. To write her novels, Grace must use her blood to power the word processor.

Suture shares three interweaving stories of artists tearing themselves open to make art. Each artist baffles their family, or harms their loved ones, with their necessary sacrifices. Eva’s wife worries about her mental health; Finn’s teenager follows in her footsteps, using forearm bones for drumsticks; Grace’s network constantly worries about the prolific writer’s penchant for self-harm, and the over-use of her vitals for art.

The result is a hyper-real exploration of the cruelties we commit and forgive in ourselves and others. Brewer brings a unique perspective to mental illness while exploring how support systems in relationships—spousal, parental, familial—can be both helpful and damaging.

This exciting debut novel is a highly original meditation on the fractures within us, and the importance of empathy as medicine and glue.

Praise for Suture

“Suture is a daring, visceral debut that examines the painful side of the creative process. Blending body horror with meditations on love, art, and forgiveness, this novel will startle and captivate you.” —Catriona Wright, author of Difficult People

“Nic Brewer’s Suture is a fleshy, flashy, not-for-the-faint-of-heart tale that poetically reimagines artmaking into the gory-yet-tender body horror that it has—perhaps—always figuratively been. Hold on to your guts.” —John Elizabeth Stintzi, author of Vanishing Monuments and My Volcano

“Suture is Nic Brewer’s transgressively taught storytelling. The notes in these pages write desire, connection and art from the body’s vivid capacity for tenderness where the hard stuff tears. A nimble, fearless debut.”  —Canisia Lubrin, Griffin Poetry Prize winning author of The Dyzgraph^xst

“I read this book with wonder–Brewer’s confident prose swept me along. Hers is sure, sharp writing that doesn’t flinch from tenderness. I felt this book in my body. I ached (in my heart and bones, along an old, spidery scar that split my chest in two) long after I set it down. What a privilege to read this work.” —Gillian Wigmore, author of Glory

Press Coverage

101 books published by 101 indie publishers + presses —Mols by Moonlight

Most Anticipated: Our 2021 Fall Fiction Preview —49th Shelf

65 Canadian works of fiction to watch for in fall 2021 —CBC Books

Book Releases: September 2021 —Reads Rainbow

All Lit Up Fall Preview 2021: Staff Picks —All Lit Up

“I Learned How to be Human from Writing This Novel” Nic Brewer on Her Unforgettable and Fantastical Debut Novel, Suture —Open Book

First Fiction Friday: Nic Brewer’s Suture —All Lit Up

All Queued Up: Your Bookish Fall LineUp this Week —All Lit Up

13 More Spine-tingling Titles for Halloween 2021 —Hamilton Review of Books

Nic Brewer’s debut novel uses body horror as a means of interrogating the artistic process —Steven Beattie, That Shakespearean Rag

18 books for the crime and thriller lover on your holiday shopping list —CBC Books

In Conversation with Nic Brewer author of Suture —Lauren Bell, Cloud Lake Literary

“Suture is built out of biting prose and vivid imagery. It is not a novel for those averse to gore, yet still should be considered a must-read. Creatives will feel seen with Brewer’s description of the artistic process, and achieving suspension of disbelief is easy. Others will enjoy Suture because of its incredibly human characters, each imperfect and multifaceted.” —Lauren Bell, Cloud Lake Literary

“This is a beautifully painful book, highly recommended.” —Andrew Wilmot, subTerrain Magazine

Author Spotlight Series: Nic Brewer —My Entertainment World

The Lonely Writer Podcast, hosted by Eden Boudreau: Season 2, Episode 2, “Neurodivergence and The Art of Creation,” with Nic Brewer, author of Suture —Listen on Apple Podcasts, Audible, or Spotify, and search for us on any platform that you listen to your favourite show!

“Suture lights up the need for forgiveness while exploring how family and supporting social networks can be at once helpful and injurious. Mental health emerges as a significant theme in the cruelties people inflict upon themselves and others by their actions.” —Claudette Bouman, The Puritan

“Brewer’s nimble writing makes even the most grotesque descriptions intoxicating. Suture is unique tale of creativity, mental health and masochism that is as messy and fearless as it is tender and evocative.” — Bernice Santos, Broken Pencil

“It is, at times, too beautiful; it is, at times, a gift. It is impossible to read Brewer’s debut without feeling something, whether that be a reaction to the graphic scenes of body horror, or to the moving depiction of care . . . Suture is a novel of feelings, one that moves between extremes to highlight the care that can sometimes be missed in the trauma of contemporary art. For that reason, it is a stunning debut.” —Kelly Baron, The Ampersand Review