Becalming

by Aga Maksimowska

Gosia feels stalled in her life, but a family trip opens her eyes to the life she has … and the life she wants.

Gosia, a high school chemistry teacher, travels to her native Poland to visit her estranged father. Back in Canada, meanwhile, her father-in-law — who has been more of a dad to her than her own — is dying of cancer. Away from her routine, Gosia questions everything in her life, including her long-term boyfriend, Peter. She feels stuck in the terrifying time of early adulthood, in her first grown-up job while managing student debt, monogamy, and existential dread. Is this really it, she wonders?

Gosia’s time in Poland gives her the chance to examine her life, and she finds herself pulled homeward to Canada, where she faces the fact that Peter’s father — like her own — is far from perfect. Can she love despite betrayal? Can she find hope in her fiery, complex love for Peter? Is there something more to this life that she didn’t even realize she had?

Becalming tells the story of two people realizing that happily ever after is not something to be but something to continue to explore, through adversity and outrage, tragedy and inspiration, and love.

A RARE MACHINES BOOK

Genres: Fiction

344 pages, Paperback

Published May 12, 2026

About the author

Aga Maksimowska is the author of the 2013 Toronto Book Awards shortlisted novel Giant. She emigrated from Poland in 1988. She studied Journalism at Ryerson University and Education at the University of Toronto. In 2010, she completed a Master’s of Fine Arts degree in Creative Writing at the University of Guelph. Aga lives in Toronto with her husband and daughter, where she is teaching high-school English and working on her second novel.

Reviews

[Kathy Porteous · Rating 5 out of 5]

I want to begin by saying that I loved his book. That said, it didn’t ‘live’ with me - at first. What I mean is that while I was reading, I thoroughly enjoyed the writing, the characters, the story. But, when I put the book down I no longer thought about it. It wasn’t urging me to get back to it. Then, quietly, it slipped into my life. I realized I was thinking of it when driving, walking, in my alone minutes. And then I was totally captured. I couldn’t wait to get back to the characters, their stories, the beautiful, bold, gentle, jarring writing.

[Whatithinkaboutthisbook · Rating 4 out of 5]

Becalming by Aga Maksimowska

This is a highly entertaining novel full of beautifully flawed characters. Gosia is a fascinating character, yearning for both stability and wild abandon. Her life has been shaped by abandonment, first her father leaves, then her mother moves to Canada, leaving Gosia and her sister in Poland with their grandparents. When she meets Peter, she thinks his family embodies everything hers lacks. But a family trip to Poland to visit her estranged father, combined with Peter’s father’s terminal illness, forces Gosia to recognize how complicated families and relationships are.

Gosia is a wonderful mix of complicated, messy and contradictory emotions. She has learned to protect herself through achievement and emotional distance. Intimacy is a threat, and vulnerability is dangerous. Constantly alert for signs of imminent abandonment, she cannot fully open up to Peter. What she can’t get from Peter she searches elsewhere, in the daily flirtation and titillation with a work colleague. Gosia is searching for fulfillment and longing for connection, intimacy and sexual satisfaction. Her dissatisfaction ripples through every aspect of her life - her work, her relationships, her sex life - leading to her walking a fine line between following her impulses and staying true to her values.

Maksimowska has created a complex and nuanced story about the messy realities of early adulthood: careers that fail to live up to expectations, longing for the life you imagined you would have, and reassessing family and parents through adult eyes.

A layered and engaging novel filled with messy, beautifully flawed characters.

[Dan W · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic. Trades the adolescent hope of Giant for the contemporary realities of adulthood. It’s a darker book, but is a fun, easy read throughout. Also - Aga Maksimowska has such a gift for writing awkward, funny, cringe-inducing family mealtimes!

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

“The story is excellent. It’s hard. It pulls me out of my comfort zone, challenges me, smacks me in the face. There’s a violence to your language that shocked me, but I guess didn’t surprise me.” These words, spoken by one of the main characters in Aga Maksimowska’s sophomore novel are an accurate description of the power of the language in her book, Becalming. The definition of the apt title refers to “the action of soothing, quieting or rendering still.” Gosia, the protagonist, is a disillusioned Chemistry teacher to entitled, blurring the borders on toxic, young men, at a private boys’ school in Toronto. Her true passion is creative writing and she is desperately awaiting word on acceptance into an MA program to push her into leaving her job and further her creative side. As summer and a trip to her native Poland to visit her estranged father loom, Gosia drunkenly cheats on her long-time partner, Peter. Meanwhile, Peter learns that his father, who has been a much stronger adult male figure to Gosia than her own, is terminally ill and Peter cannot make the trip. He insists she go, and she invites her errant sister to use his ticket. Thus, Gosia finds herself requiring a quiet stillness or “becalming” of her own in order to reflect on her childhood, her life choices, influences, future decisions and relationship with Peter. Maksimowska deftly navigates the pushes and pulls of Gosia’s actions and inactions with sharp language that stings the reader as much as the pain of the many betrayals in the story. Even when I put the book down, Gosia’s jagged descriptions and serrated reflections stayed with me. BECALMING hits the shelves April 14, but can be pre-ordered. Buy it for the story and the way it is told, but place it in a position of honour in your home for the gorgeous cover. #dundurnpress

[Jessie McKinnon · Rating 2 out of 5]

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.

I was eager to read the book after reading the summary, but it actually read like a random sequence of messy, unfinished thoughts. I feel like it was intended to be that way but it didn't land for me. I was constantly frustrated, but in a "what is she talking about" way. Most characters were unlikeable but not in a way that made them empathize with them.

[Enid Wray]

DNF

[librarianka · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed the library copy of Aga Maksimowska's second novel very much. It had me pulled into the familiar territory any immigrant will recognize immediately. It also produced several Proustian moments for me when Gosia is visiting her native Poland in the Baltic area. I liked how the author weaved in all relevant historic and cultural Polish details unobtrusively educating the audience perhaps not familiar with this particular part of the world. I appreciate the edgy storytelling of this author very suited to the messy realities the characters encounter or create. A classic, an immigrant story, a love story and a story of loves lost.