Eight days / Teresa Toten ; cover illustrations by Monique Parlevliet.

How do you face a heartbreaking past? One day at a time. Or as Aggie says, one crisis at a time. In Teresa Toten's compelling new novel Eight Days, Samantha finds out that the mother she thought had died years ago has actually just passed away. Added to this charged secret is her recovering alcoholic grandfather's strange behaviour and sudden insistence that he take Sami back to Chicago to retrieve her mother's body. Luckily, Sami's beloved neighbour and surrogate mother figure, Aggie, insists on coming on the road trip, bringing along her quirky sense of humour and fantastic wig collection. The eight-day journey takes us from Toronto to Chicago and back again, as Sami, an American living with her grandfather in a Muslim-dominated apartment complex in Toronto, struggles to find out who she is and where she belongs.