Description

About the Author

Carol Shields was born in Chicago and lived in Canada for most of her life. She is the author of three short story collections and eight novels, including the Pulitzer Prize -- winning The Stone Diaries and Larry’s Party, winner of the Orange Prize.

Praise for Unless…

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Nothing short of astonishing.”
-The New Yorker

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

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

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

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

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

“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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Nothing short of astonishing.”
-The New Yorker

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

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