Kristen den Hartog is a novelist and non-fiction writer whose novels have won the Alberta Trade Fiction Book of the Year and been shortlisted for the Toronto Book Award and the Trillium Award. She is the co-author (with her sister Tracy Kasaboski) of two previous non-fiction books: The Occupied Garden: A Family Memoir of War-torn Holland, a Globe & Mail Top 100 selection, and The Cowkeeper’s Wish, praised by Canada’s History as a blend of “graceful prose” and “meticulous research on a stupendous scale.” Work on these two books — intimate histories of ordinary families — sparked the writing of The Roosting Box and den Hartog’s ongoing interest in how war changes the direction of people’s lives so dramatically. In 2024, The Roosting Box was a finalist for the Toronto Book Awards, whose jury called it a “heartbreaking and humane … tapestry of lives lived.” Kristen den Hartog lives in Lyndhurst, Ontario, and in the west end of Toronto, not far from the site of the former Christie Street Hospital.
Kristen den Hartog 