Origin of Haloes

by Kristen Den Hartog

Stretching across two decades and unfolding in Olympic-year intervals, Origin of Haloes tells the story of two families – the LeBlancs and the Halliwells – connected by an illicit affair and a lie that has dire consequences. A tale of love, betrayal, and lingering ghosts, Origin of Haloes explores the shattering ways a family can break apart even as it stays together.

270 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

Kristen den Hartog is a novelist and non-fiction writer whose novels have won the Alberta Trade Fiction Book of the Year and been shortlisted for the Toronto Book Award and the Trillium Award. She is the co-author (with her sister Tracy Kasaboski) of two previous non-fiction books: The Occupied Garden: A Family Memoir of War-torn Holland, a Globe & Mail Top 100 selection, and The Cowkeeper’s Wish, praised by Canada’s History as a blend of “graceful prose” and “meticulous research on a stupendous scale.” Work on these two books — intimate histories of ordinary families — sparked the writing of The Roosting Box and den Hartog’s ongoing interest in how war changes the direction of people’s lives so dramatically. Kristen den Hartog lives in Lyndhurst, Ontario, and also in the west end of Toronto, not far from the site of the former Christie Street Hospital.

Reviews

[Samuel Barnes · Rating 3 out of 5]

A multi-threaded collage of the quiet tumult and dysfunction that resides behind the facade of small-town suburbia. I appreciated the way the author used the Olympic games as a framework to relate the passing of time and to give some big-world context, since the story never departs far from the quaint range of a single residential street. There were elements I really enjoyed, but ultimately I was unsatisfied with the resolution (as with real life, there are rarely satisfying conclusions, so I get that). It is an emotional ride, and full of tragedy, but also filled with beautiful passages to balance.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this story, which focused on the fallout of one big lie. In the book, a teenaged gymnast in Canada gets pregnant, and she makes a declaration about who the father is. This declaration affects the trajectory of multiple families across a small town. What I loved was watching how all the pieces began to fall into place, as the reader slowly sees how different characters and different events fit together.