num_pages: 8
description: For all of her days, Reta Winters 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 oldest daughter, Norah, drops out of life 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 Carol Shields' 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.
language: English
title: Unless
titlecomplete: Unless
genres: Family, Fiction, Adult Fiction, Contemporary, Canada, Womens, Literary Fiction, Literature, Canadian Literature, Novels
ratings_count: 16318
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: HarperAudio