The Mountain Can Wait - Hardcover

Sarah Leipciger was born in Peterborough, Canada. She spent her teenage years in Toronto, later moving to Vancouver Island to study Creative Writing and English literature at the University of Victoria. Leipciger left Canada in 2001 for Korea and South East Asia, and currently lives in London with her husband and three children, where she teaches creative writing to men in prison.

"THE MOUNTAIN CAN WAIT is a taut, psychologically gripping novel populated by original characters constantly at battle with nature, family, society, and themselves. This is a book that kept me up at night. Leipciger has Margaret Atwood's rare flair for crafting an intelligent and suspenseful novel."―- Nickolas Butler, bestselling author of Shotgun Lovesongs



"It's clear and beautiful, like swimming in a mountain lake."―Mark Haddon, author of New York Times bestseller The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

"In this assured debut novel Leipciger beautifully captures the tender and mercurial relationship between father and son, Tom and Curtis Berry. These are characters you care about, flawed and haunted by regret, existing in the harsh yet undeniably radiant world of the Canadian Rocky Mountains. Leipciger writes with great compassion and precision, her language is an exquisite mix of muscle and grace. The Mountain Can Wait resonated with wonderful imagery which will stay with me for a very long time."―Michele Forbes, author of Ghost Moth

"The Mountain Can Wait is as haunting, wild and compelling as the landscape it describes."
―Claire Cameron, author of The Bear


"Genuinely moving."
―Kirkus


"In language that highlights natural beuaty and the challenges of living in the bush, Leipciger explores what a sense of responsibility really entails, the finer points of family dynamics and the strong hold a place can have on a person, from Whistler to the tiny isles around Vancouver Island."
―Shelf Awareness


"The geographies of the West are rendered here with remarkable finesse. The forests, the lakes and even the mosquitoes come to life in vivid, three-dimensional detail... Leipciger reveals enough to show that she's in masterful control. The writing everywhere is crisp and elegant, studded with unexpected metaphors and keenly observed detail."―The Globe and Mail

"An entire moral universe is at stake here, rotating between duty and self-reliance. When Tom helps a trapped goshawk escape, he thinks, 'To be fully equipped for life in body alone, autonomous, to move through this world needing nothing--that was beautiful.' Leipciger questions, punctures and then partially reconstructs this ethic, one that's matched by the rigorous beauty of her own writing."
―New York Times Book Review