About the Book

Life on the Refrigerator Door is a poignant and deeply moving first novel about the bonds of love and frustration that tie mothers and daughters together. Told entirely in a series of notes left on the kitchen fridge—some casual, some intimate, some funny, some angry—it is the story of nine months in the life of 15–year-old Claire and her single mother. Preoccupied with their busy separate lives, rarely in the same room at the same time, they talk to each other in a series of short snippets that reflect the daily drama of school, boyfriends, work and chores that make up their days. Yet the mundane soon becomes extraordinary when a crisis overtakes their lives—a momentous change that will redefine their relationship and unfold in their exchanges on the refrigerator door.

Short, powerful and unforgettable, Kuipers' novel looks deep into the complex relationship between mothers and daughters, and the distances that can open up between people who live together but exist in their own worlds. Unfolding in a wonderfully simple and intimate narrative, Life on the Refrigerator Door will appeal to readers across the generations, delivering universal lessons about love.

Critical Praise

"In Alice Kuipers' deft hands, a mother and daughter's exchange of notes on a refrigerator becomes a metaphor for the evanescence of life. Call it the poetry of daily routine. Without warning, lists of groceries, appointments, and reminders transform into a meditation on the lost opportunities in our lives: the overlooked clues of fear and distress from our loved ones; and the wrenching aftershock when we recognize—too late—what's forever gone. In Kuipers' utterly original debut, the deceptively simple is charged in equal part, with technical dazzle, heartfelt humour, and emotional truth. Wow."

--Allan Stratton, author of Chanda's Secrets