Behind You

Behind You, by local Canadian author Catherine Hernandez, is her most gripping and affecting novel yet. Inspired by a horrifying chapter in Canadian history, it follows fictional characters terrorized by a fictional perpetrator mirroring the real-life Scarborough Stalker of the 1980s and 90s.  The story centers on Alma, a Filipina film editor for a True Crime series called Infamous.  While Alma appears to have a good life with her wife and son, the past resurfaces when Infamous features the Scarborough Stalker. 

 

Weaving between young Alma’s experience of living in fear during the manhunt and adult Alma’s struggle to address her son’s dangerous behavior, the novel explores the insidiousness of rape culture.  Behind You daringly questions not “whodunit,” but “who hasn’t been complicit” in sexual harm, making it a moving story of resilience and a chilling portrayal of the long shadow of trauma.