Walt

Newfoundland journalist and author Wangersky is a versatile and acclaimed writer whose last short story collection Whirl Away won the Thomas Head Raddall Atlantic Fiction Award and was a finalist for the 2012 Scotiabank Giller Prize. Now, in a novel that keeps creepier with every page, he introduces the reader to Walt, a janitor in a grocery store, who has taken to collecting the shopping lists that people leave behind. These lists are written on scraps of unwanted paper that reveal unintended details of the shopper's lives to Walt, who uses this information to track down and watch select shoppers. After the suspicious disappearance of his wife, the police have him on their radar; they just don't realize how much trouble Walt has been up to. Every page takes the reader a little deeper into his life, slowly revealing just how disturbed he is and the things that he might be capable of. Though it takes a little time to really build up to it, the end leaves you feeling deeply unsettled and thinking twice about where you leave your shopping lists and whether your windows are covered. Agent: Shaun Bradley, Transatlantic Agency. (Jan.)