Vernal Thaw is an acclaimed novel by Frances (Franky) Cannon that traces the entangling and unraveling of a queer relationship through love and tumult over the course of a year in Vermont.
Franky, a young adjunct professor haunted by encounters with violent men, falls into an intense relationship with Vera, an older neurosurgeon shaped by a childhood in homophobic Soviet-era Ukraine. As they attempt to build a life together, their shared desire snags on unhealed wounds. An ambiguous darkness drifts between literature, dreams, and reality – ghostly forms beneath the ice, a midwinter house flood, the death of a mutual friend, secret longings – testing the tenuous intimacy between Franky and Vera.
Set Margins', 284pp, 12cm x 18cm, hardcover, first edition, 2026