num_pages: 213
description: Reta Winters, 44 years of age, has started a new sort of life. She has discoverd the meaning of loss for the first time.For all of her days, Reta has enjoyed the useful monotony of happiness: a loving family, good friends, growing success as a writer of light fiction, novels 'for summertime'. This placid existence cracks open one fearful day 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.Warmth, passion and wisdom come together in 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.--back cover
language: English
title: UNLESS.
titlecomplete: UNLESS.
genres: Literature, Literary Fiction, Womens, Novels, Fiction, Adult Fiction, Canadian Literature, Canada, Contemporary, Family
ratings_count: 16322
places: Canada
awards: awardedAt: 1009872000000
name: Booker Prize, awardedAt: 1041408000000
name: Orange Prize
category: Fiction Shortlist, awardedAt: 1009872000000
name: James Tait Black Memorial Prize
category: Fiction, awardedAt: 1009872000000
name: Scotiabank Giller Prize, awardedAt: 1041408000000
name: Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize
publisher: Fourth Estate