Unless: A Novel

Synopsis

from The Pulitzer Prize-winning Author Of The Stone Diaries.

warmth, Passion, And Wisdom Come Together In Carol Shields's Remarkably Supple Prose. Unless, A Harrowing But Ultimately Consoling Story Of One Family's Anguish And Healing, Proves Her Mastery Of Extraordinary Fictions About Ordinary Life.

new Yorker

reta Winters -- Loving Helpmeet To A Doctor, Mother Of Three Cheerful Daughters, And Author Of A Successful Comic Novel -- Has Always Considered Herself Happy, Even Blessed. Then Her Eldest Child, Nineteen-year-old Norah, Briefly Disappears And Resurfaces As A Panhandling Mute On A Toronto Street Corner, Holding Up A Homemade Placard That Says Goodness. Shields's Ability To Use Reta's Darkest Fears To Reveal The Order Lurking In Chaos, Without Ever Losing Her Light Touch (laurie Colwin Comes To Mind), Is Nothing Short Of Astonishing.