Unless - Carol Shields

Forty-four-year-old Reta Winters, wife, mother, writer, and translator, is living a happy life until one of her three daughters drops out of university to sit on a downtown street corner silent and cross-legged with a begging bowl in her lap and a placard round her neck that says "Goodness."

The final book from Pulitzer Prize-winner Carol Shields, Unless is a candid and deeply moving novel from one of the twentieth century's most accomplished and beloved authors.

PRAISE
“A landmark book...yet another noteworthy addition to Shields’s impressive body of work.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“A brave, profound, and quirky novel with an undercurrent of the deeply amusing.” — Anita Shreve, author of Sea Glass

“A wonderful, powerful book, written in a style which combines simplicity and elegance. I found it deeply moving.” — Joanne Harris, author of Chocolat

“Finely detailed, thoughtful and sometimes even humorous, this book is highly recommended for all fiction collections.” — Library Journal

“Often quietly heartbreaking...often, bitingly humorous.” — Kirkus (starred review)

“Marvelously idiosyncratic, passionate and wise, Shields’ tenth novel rollicks from beginning to end with sauciness and wit.” — Book Magazine

“All novelists worth their fictional salt can create fine characters; Carol Shields creates lives. ” — New York Times Book Review

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

“With a poet’s precision, Shields dissects grief and makes coping with bad luck feel like domestic heroism.” — People

“A superb new novel...a graceful coda, an arabesque performed over an abyss.” — Time magazine

“Some hefty perceptions, fortunately shared with us in this fine novel.” — Washington Post Book World

“The best of her novels...fearless, smart, funny, beautifully written.” — New Orleans Times-Picayune

“A fine book, poignant, witty, rich in character, vivid in its sense of place...surprisingly suspenseful.” — St. Louis Post-Dispatch

“Remarkably subtle and unsettling...one of those books that make you regret that reading is a solitary pleasure.” — Christian Science Monitor

“Luminous ... Shields is a consummate master of tone and acute psychological insight.” — Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

“A luminous novel ...Shields writes with clarity, intelligence and generosity, finding meaning in most mundane details of home life.” — Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

“A novel of...assured intelligence and defiant vivacity.” — San Francisco Chronicle

“When Shields is good she is very good. There are nuggets of pure gold in Unless.” — Newark Star Ledger

“An engaging, memorable novel.” — Cleveland Plain Dealer

“Relentlessly fine...imagined with style and vigor, melancholoy and wisdom.” — San Diego Union-Tribune

“Closely observed moments create the kind of subtle textures and elegant prose that won Ms. Shields the Pulitzer Prize.” — Richmond Times-Dispatch

“Unless succeeds beautifully...Shields [is] an expert at illuminating the complicated dynamics of off-kilter families.” — Atlanta Journal-Constitution

“A fitting farewell from an author revered for her graceful, insightful writing...sparkles with wry humor and elegant irony.” — Hartford Courant

“Truly, a miracle of language and perception.” — The Oregonian (Portland)

“All the trademark Shields delights are robustly present: idiosyncratic plotting; limber prose...deep compassion...tart commentary and irreverent wit.” — Orlando Sentinel

“Entirely satisfying… Shields’ voice, tender and moderated at all times, remains wise and very readable.” — Houston Chronicle

“Shields’s novels and short stories are intensely imagined, humanely generous, beautifully sustained and impeccably detailed.” — Publishers Weekly

“Nothing short of astonishing.” — The New Yorker

“A raw, subtle, inspiring novel about feminism, femininity, virtue, oppression and motherhood...I was inexpressibly moved by it.” — Rachel Cusk, Daily Telegraph (London)

“Her wisdom and generosity of spirit are visible at every turn.” — London Times (Sunday)