Carol Shields

Reta Winters has many reasons to be happy. Then in the spring of her forty-fourth year, all the quiet satisfactions of her well-lived life disappear in a moment: her eldest daughter Norah suddenly runs from the family and ends up mute and begging on a Toronto street corner with a hand-lettered sign reading GOODNESS around her neck. Piercing and sad, astute and evocative, full of tenderness and laughter, Unless will stand with The Stone Diaries in the canon of Carol Shields’s fiction.

In Dressing Up for the Carnival, Carol Shields distills her characteristic wisdom, elegance, and insouciant humor in twenty-two luminous stories. A wealth of surprises and contrasts, this collection ranges from the lyricism of "Weather," in which a couple's life is thrown into chaos when the National Association of Meteorologists goes on strike, to the swampy sexuality of "Eros," in which a room in a Parisian hotel on the verge of ruin is the catalyst for passion, to the brave confidence of "A Scarf"--New for this collection-which chronicles the realities of a fledging author's book tour. Playful, graceful, acutely observed, and generous of spirit, these stories will delight her devoted fans and win her new converts as well. ... Publisher description.

This is the poignant story of Daisy Goodwill, twentieth-century pilgrim, from her calamitous birth in Canada to her death in a Florida nursing home nearly ninety years later. Struggling to find her place in the world, she listens and observes, becoming a witness to her own life and death in this rich tale that reflects and illuminates our own unsettled era. ~from the back cover

A husband and wife exchange vows of celibacy when she has to move to the other side of the country for a job. Over a period of a year they exchange letters, telling each other how they are doing. The setting is Canada.

Mary Swann is the story of four individuals who become entwined in the life of Mary Swann, a rural Canadian poet whose authentic and unique voice is discovered only hours before her husband hacks her to pieces. Who is Mary Swann? And how could she have produced these works of genius in almost complete isolation? Mysteriously, all traces of Swann's existence, her notebook, the first draft of her work, even her photograph, gradually vanish as the characters in this engrossing novel become caught up in their own concepts of who Mary Swann was.

Charleen is a divorcee in her mid-thirties, eking out a living as a poet and part-time assistant for an obscure scientific journal. Although she is quick to count her blessings - a son whom she loves, a blossoming relationship with a man, and friends who care about her - Charleen wonders how her life turned out the way it did. Is she a failure? Or is she still struggling to escape the limited world of her childhood? Her search for answers is as exasperating as the meager paycheck she takes to the bank every week. But when she returns home to attend her mother's wedding, Charleen is caught up in a series of unexpected - and terrifying - events. And in coping with these big and small emergencies, she is forced to come to terms with the life she has led and the decisions she has made.

Judith Gill's world is shaped by the actions of those around her. As a biographer, she spends her days analyzing the minutiae of past lives. As a mother, she is perplexed by her children's developing lives. As a wife, she struggles to sympathize with and support a man who sometimes acts like a stranger. Her own life recedes, overshadowed by the urge to observe and understand the people she encounters. Yet, in this lovingly documented year of a woman's life, Judith is revealed to herself; a person with desires, passions, and faults; with instincts that are sometimes right and often wrong. And it is through the very observations she can't help but make that Judith finds her place in the world: as translator and celebrant of life's small - and very important - ceremonies.

Reflective writings on topics that are taboo to speak of in female culture.

A man of few words -- by Judith Claire Mitchell The toilet and Rampal the government official -- by Kiran Desai Your own backyard -- by Adam Marshall Johnson Near to gone -- by Timothy A. Westmoreland Through the timber -- by Carolyn Moon The shooting -- by Richard Elson Forager -- by Natasha Waxman Relevant girl -- by Tenaya Rahel Darlington How the nurse feels -- by Greg Changnon Clean -- by Athena Paradissis Breathe in breath out -- by Coleen Conn Dunkle Apnea -- by Melanie Little Waiting for a crash -- by Christopher A. Pasetto Visitation -- by Aimee LaBrie Durian -- by Sheldon Robert Walcher Zentih -- by Andrew J. McCann Waiting for the Kala -- by Nelinia Cabiles Helen on 86th street -- by Wendi Kaufman The retrofit -- by Christina Milletti The Golem's record -- by Daniel Noah Halpern Pickled Sprouts -- by Naama Goldstein Evacuation order no. 19 -- by Julie Otsuka.

The distinction of the Canadian short story - genre that boasts two of the leading short-story writers in English, Alice Munro and Mavis Gallant - has been recognized internationally, and was celebrated in 1986 by the publication of the acclaimed first edition of this book, of which over 42,000 copies are now in print.