One Book, One Community: An Evening with Catherine Hernandez

Tickets available Thursday, October 3 at 9 a.m.

Canada's longest-running community reading program celebrates its 23rd year with Catherine Hernandez's The Story of Us.

About the Book

Like many Overseas Filipino Workers, Mary Grace Concepcion has lived a life of sacrifices. First, she left her husband, Ale, to be a caregiver in Hong Kong. Now, she has travelled even farther, to Canada, in the hopes of one day sponsoring Ale and having children of their own.

But when she arrives in Toronto, she must navigate a series of bewildering and careless employers and unruly children. Mary Grace seeks new employment as a Personal Support Worker and begins caring for Liz, an elderly patient suffering from Alzheimer's disease, whose health is as fragile as her rundown bungalow beside the Rouge River in Scarborough. While Mary Grace's time with her charge challenges her conservative beliefs, she soon becomes Liz's biggest ally, and the friendship that grows between them will turn out to be just as legendary as Liz's past.

Beautifully narrated by the all-seeing eye of Mary Grace's newborn baby, The Story of Us is a novel about sisterhood, about blood and chosen family, and about how belonging can be found where we least expect it.

About the Author

CATHERINE HERNANDEZ is a proud queer woman of colour and an award-winning author. She is of Filipino, Spanish, Chinese and Indian heritage and is married into the Navajo Nation. Her debut novel, Scarborough, which was adapted into an award-winning motion picture, won the Jim Wong-Chu Emerging Writers Award as an unpublished manuscript. It was a finalist for the Toronto Book Award, the Forest of Reading Evergreen Award, the Edmund White Award, the Trillium Book Award and Canada Reads. Her second novel, Crosshairs, made the CBC’s Best Canadian Fiction list and was named one of NOW magazine’s 10 Best Books, an Audible Best Audiobook and an NBC 20 Best LGBTQ Book. Her novel, The Story of Us, was shortlisted for the Forest of Reading Evergreen Award and longlisted for a Toronto Book Award. Catherine Hernandez is also a playwright and the author of the children’s books M Is for Mustache: A Pride ABC Book, I Promise and Where Do Your Feelings Live? Her most recent novel, Behind You, was released in May 2024. She lives outside Toronto.

Please note: This is an in-person event taking place in the theatre at our Central Library location (85 Queen St. N.). Doors open at 6:30 p.m.

Copies of Catherine's books will be available for sale. Book signing to follow.

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Reminder! We oversell these events to make sure that the most people have an opportunity to attend. Tickets are only guaranteed until 15 minutes before the show starts, at which point we will start opening up available spots to the rush line.

About One Book One Community

One Book, One Community supports reading, celebrates books and writing, promotes Canadian writers, and builds a sense of community through the shared experience of reading. OBOC encourages people in Waterloo Region to read the same book, discuss it, attend an event and meet the author.

Accessibility at Kitchener Public Library

Kitchener Public Library has assistive listening devices available for library program participants who are Deaf or hard of hearing. Please call or email us if you would like more information on this equipment, or to request to use it in this program. Please let us know as far in advance as possible and we will do our best to meet your request. Phone 519-743-0271 or email [email protected].

Host or Publisher Kitchener Public Library Events