Twenty Miles

By Cara Hedley

Isabel Norris has never left the ice. Her father was a hockey legend who died before she was born, and her grandparents have raised her in his skates.

When Iz leaves her grandmother behind to play for the Winnipeg University Scarlets, she struggles to fit in on this team of hard-hitting, tough-talking women with a penchant for buffets, beer bongs and raunchy humour – and a fierce loyalty to one another and to their sport. But in their raucous midst, Iz can't quite find her own place in the game.

As she moves between the rowdy hilarity of the Scarlets' dressing room and quiet, lyrical contemplations, Iz tries to navigate the ways loss plays out on the ice. Based largely on author Cara Hedley's three seasons on the University of Manitoba Bison, Twenty Miles celebrates women's hockey and offers an uncompromising look at the ways in which the sport both haunts and redeems the women who play it.

'[A] work of literary fiction that is surprisingly touching, honest, engaging and unusual - both in terms of its subject matter and perspective … Hedley stickhandles her way around Iz's conundrum with beautiful agility, using deftly lyrical prose and insight to describe the rough and tumble of a hard-hitting game and the harsh realities of life.'

– Winnipeg Free Press

• Language: English
• Publisher: Coach House Books
• Release date: Oct 24, 2007
• ISBN: 9781770562318

Cara Hedley

Cara Hedley has lived in England and Western Canada, and calls Winnipeg and Lake of the Woods home. After playing three seasons with the University of Manitoba Bison women’s hockey team, she moved to Calgary, where she completed an MA in English Literature and Creative Writing. Cara has been a member of the dANDelion magazine editorial collective and performed as part of a collaborative poetic ensemble in Calgary, Toronto and Scotland.

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