A riveting novel about a mother’s all-consuming worry for her
child over forty-eight hours at a remote cottage with old friends and a
mysterious neighbour

Ruth is the fiercely protective mother of four-year-old Fern. Together
they visit a remote family cottage belonging to Stef,
the woman who has been Ruth’s best friend—and her husband’s best friend—for
years. Stef is everything Ruth is not—confident, loud, carefree—and Ruth cannot
seem to escape her. While Fern runs wild with Stef’s older twins and dockside
drinks flow freely among the adults, they’re joined by Stef’s neighbour Marvin,
a man whose manic pursuit of fun is matched only by his side comments about his
absent wife. As day moves into night and darkness settles over the woods that
surround the cottages, the edges among this group of people sharpen until a
suspected threat takes an unexpected turn.

“In Worry, Westhead demonstrates that leaping is precisely what she knows how to do, and her novel delivers with the most assured and powerful landing.”