Fret: A Novel
$14.99-
“Nadia Bozak is a tremendous talent.” — Zoe Whittall, author of The Fake
Once a rising star of indie rock, Kate is now a middle-aged single mom living far out of the spotlight. Everything changes for her when an unprecedented heat wave and a stolen car set off a chain of events that threaten to upend her new, peaceful life. Fired from her job, separated from her children, and overwhelmed by public shaming, Kate must navigate the cold realities of the child welfare and family court systems while struggling to stay cool in an increasingly unbearable world.
Determined to rebuild, Kate finds herself forging new connections and fostering a sense of community — something she hasn’t felt since her music career ended in disaster more than a decade before. As Kate finds a new voice, she makes her way back to her children and her love of music, and steps closer to reconciling with her former bandmate and arch-rival: her little sister.
If building community is Kate’s way of reckoning with the mistakes of her past, can it also be a way to mitigate the deeper, more urgent issues and structural injustices that threaten our future?
Available April 21, 2026. PRE-ORDER NOW!
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Nadia Bozak lives in Ottawa with her family and is a faculty member in the Department of English at Carleton University. Fret is her fifth book.
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Published: April 2026
ISBN: 9781770418639
Dimensions: 5.5 x 8.5 in.
Pages: 256
Reviews
“Fret is a beautiful, richly textured, intimate story about a once-famous singer turned paycheque-to-paycheque single mom enduring an endless heat wave, non-stop traffic, nosy neighbours, the wrath of social media, and a past that haunts her every song. As she struggles to raise her kids in an increasingly hostile and chaotic world, Kate begins to reconnect with her old self through music. Equally hilarious and heartfelt, what truly elevates Bozak’s story are her poignant reflections on the devastating impacts of climate equity and internet culture on the lives of ordinary people. Wonderful, wise, and witty, Fret is pitch perfect.” — Katie Tallo, internationally bestselling author of Dark August and the Gus Monet Trilogy
“In a world blistered by global heating, wracked by the paroxysms of social media, and gut-punched by bare-knuckle capitalism, Fret asks what room is left for getting by and getting along? Nadia Bozak has given us a blast furnace of a novel, seething with acts of judgement and freighted, desperate desire. Like a master musician, Bozak plucks at the strings of our anxieties and sympathies, offering power chords of conflict and confession alongside sweet, rich notes of hope and possibility.” — Robert McGill, author of Simple Creatures