Unless

Unless"Nothing short of astonishing." New Yorker "A thing of beauty lucidly written, artfully ordered, riddled with riddles and undergirded with dark layers of philosophical meditations." Los Angeles Times For all of her life, 44 year old Reta Winters has enjoyed the useful monotony of happiness: a loving family, good friends, growing success as a writer of light 'summertime' fiction. But this placid existence is cracked wide open when her beloved eldest

"Nothing short of astonishing." -- New Yorker

"A thing of beauty--lucidly written, artfully ordered, riddled with riddles and undergirded with dark layers of philosophical meditations." -- Los Angeles Times

For all of her life, 44 year old Reta Winters has enjoyed the useful monotony of happiness: a loving family, good friends, growing success as a writer of light 'summertime' fiction. But this placid existence is cracked wide open when her beloved eldest daughter, Norah, drops out to sit on a gritty street corner, silent but for the sign around her neck that reads 'GOODNESS.' Reta's search for what drove her daughter to such a desperate statement turns into an unflinching and surprisingly funny meditation on where we find meaning and hope.

The final book from Pulitzer Prize-winner Carol Shields, Unless, is a harrowing but ultimately consoling story of one family's anguish and healing, proving Shields's mastery of extraordinary fictions about ordinary life.

--London Times (Sunday)

Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Published: 01/03/2006
ISBN: 9780060874407
Pages: 320
Weight: 0.69lbs
Size: 8.01h x 5.36w x 0.89d
Accelerated Reader Quiz #/Name: 65928 / Unless
Reading Level: 7.4 / Interest Level: Upper Grade / Point Value: 12