We Could Be Rats
A Novel
Published on 4. December 2025
Book
Paperback/Softback
256 pages
978-1-6680-5815-2 (ISBN)
Description
A "one-sitting-read" (Laurie Frankel, New York Times bestselling author) about two very different sisters, and a love letter to childhood, growing up, and the power of imagination-from the bestselling author of Everyone in This Room Will Someday Be Dead and Interesting Facts About Space.
Sigrid hates working at the Dollar Pal but having always resisted the idea of growing up into the trappings of adulthood, she did not graduate high school, preferring to roam the streets of her small town with her best friend Greta, the only person in the world who ever understood her. Her older sister Margit is baffled and frustrated by Sigrid's inability to conform to the expectations of polite society.
But Sigrid's detachment veils a deeper turmoil and sensitivity. She's haunted by the pains of her past-from pretending her parents were swamp monsters when they shook the floorboards with their violent arguments to grappling with losing Greta's friendship to the opioid epidemic ravaging their town. As Margit sets out to understand Sigrid and the secrets she has hidden, both sisters, in their own time and way, discover that reigniting their shared childhood imagination is the only way forward.
"A must read" (Haley Jakobson, New York Times Editor's Choice author), We Could Be Rats is an unforgettable story of two sisters finding their way back to each other, and a celebration of that transcendent, unshakable bond.
Sigrid hates working at the Dollar Pal but having always resisted the idea of growing up into the trappings of adulthood, she did not graduate high school, preferring to roam the streets of her small town with her best friend Greta, the only person in the world who ever understood her. Her older sister Margit is baffled and frustrated by Sigrid's inability to conform to the expectations of polite society.
But Sigrid's detachment veils a deeper turmoil and sensitivity. She's haunted by the pains of her past-from pretending her parents were swamp monsters when they shook the floorboards with their violent arguments to grappling with losing Greta's friendship to the opioid epidemic ravaging their town. As Margit sets out to understand Sigrid and the secrets she has hidden, both sisters, in their own time and way, discover that reigniting their shared childhood imagination is the only way forward.
"A must read" (Haley Jakobson, New York Times Editor's Choice author), We Could Be Rats is an unforgettable story of two sisters finding their way back to each other, and a celebration of that transcendent, unshakable bond.
Reviews / Votes
"Emily Austin's latest is a masterclass in voice, unreliable narrators, and unknowable characters you get to know anyway because their small town and weird family and struggles with the world are so recognizable and so intimately detailed. We Could Be Rats is a one-sitting-read portrait of the complicated relationship between two sisters, unusual but familiar, moving but difficult, and, ultimately, the light in the darkness they each - and we too - so badly need." -LAURIE FRANKEL, New York Times bestselling author of This Is How It Always Is "We Could Be Rats is achingly true to life - in all its ugly, gorgeous, and stupidly funny complexities. Emily Austin has written a tender exploration of grief, sisterhood, and what it is to be a bit wobbly in a world that demands you get your footing. No one blends humor and existentialism quite like Austin-We Could Be Rats is a must read." -HALEY JAKOBSON, New York Times Editor's Choice author of Old Enough "A darkly funny and tender look at the wonders of childhood imagination, the loss of innocence, and the distinct and often inescapable bonds of sisterhood. Austin has a gift for creating characters so real with insights so uniquely personal that they live in my heart long after the final page." -NATALIE SUE, internationally bestselling author of I Hope This Finds You Well "We Could Be Rats is for the townies, the freaks, the dykes, the dropouts-all of us who think the world would be better if we evaporated, if we traded working at the Dollar Pal and hating ourselves for living the good life as rodents at a carnival. Emily Austin's signature dark humor and sharp observations into the human condition grip and entertain while a series of suicide notes unravel the truths behind addiction, bitter family fights, and anonymous bomb threats against a certain conservative politician in small town Canada. There are no caricatures here, just me, you, and everyone we know. It's Alice Monro for depressed lesbians, and it made me weep before it gave me a hug." -MARISSA HIGGINS, author of A Good Happy Girl "This short-but-sweet contemporary novel follows two sisters finding their way back to each other. Sigrid is an unraveling high school dropout mourning the loss of a childhood friendship and utterly reluctant to grow up. Margit is the eldest daughter who feels she has to bear the weight of her precarious family on her own. Though it carries heavy subjects like suicide, drug addiction and sexual assault, WE COULD BE RATS also contains laugh-out-loud dry humor and is a touching portrait of the messy, transcendent nature of sisterhood." -USA Today "Austin chronicles the complicated relationship between two sisters in her nuanced latest...[A] distinctive character portrait.." -Publishers WeeklyMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Dimensions
Height: 208 mm
Width: 132 mm
Thickness: 17 mm
Weight
204 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-6680-5815-2 (9781668058152)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Person
Emily Austin is the author of We Could Be Rats, Everyone in This Room Will Someday Be Dead, Interesting Facts About Space, and the poetry collection Gay Girl Prayers. She was born in Ontario, Canada, and received two writing grants from the Canadian Council for the Arts. She studied English literature and library science at Western University. She currently lives in Ottawa, in the territory of the Anishinaabe Algonquin Nation.