Touched renders the emotional and intellectual implosion experienced by Jade King, a young university student. This debut novel challenges the social stigma attached to such altered states and traces the effects of physical violation and psychic trauma. Lundgren encourages a critical examination of current psychiatric labels and treatments through a narrative that interweaves family history, legal texts, medical documents - and brave, phantasmagoric writing.

Praise for Touched:

"Surprising and formally imaginative, Touched is a poignant, often witty, ‘detective novel' of the soul. In short, a remarkable first novel." (Betsy Warland, author of The Bat Had Blue Eyes and Proper Definitions)

"The ... element that shapes Touched into such an interesting read is how Lundgren gets us inside Jade's head. The exploration of the interior workings of a character is what fiction offers us, and with Touched, we step into the process of a mental breakdown. This is probably the strongest aspect of Lundgren's novel." (Maria Stanborough, Herizons)

"Touched steps bravely into volatile contemporary debates about ‘mental illness', and provides inspiring glimpses into the role that inner exploration and creative communication can play in healing... ..She also proves to be deft at writing both sex scenes and philosophical dialogues - often simultaneously." (Rob Wipond, Monday Magazine)

A past winner of the Open Space Emerging Writers' Competition and a finalist in Paragraph's Short Fiction Contest, Jodi Lundgren has published in literary magazines such as Trivia, Paragraph and subTerrain, as well as in the anthology Beyond Bedlam. Her critical writing has appeared in Canadian Literature, Matrix and Essays on Canadian Writing. She is currently working on a novel for young adults.

Jodi Lundgren's profile page