THE REPUBLIC OF LOVE (X Rated)

COLLECTED STORIES

Carol Shields won critical acclaim and several prizes for her novels, but she was also a talented short story writer. Now, for the first time her short stories have been collected into one volume.

DUET

Judith is a biographer whose life is subsumed by others. Her sister Charleen is a single mother and lapsed poet. While Judith analyses the minutiae of lives past and present, Charleen battles her own past ghosts and wonders desperately what her life has been about. As their mother’s wedding approaches, both sisters must come to terms with the paths they have chosen. Originally published as two companion novels: Small Ceremonies and The Box Garden.

JANE AUSTEN

Herself a novelist, Carol Shields, has produced a refreshing and intuitive account of the life of the enigmatic Jane Austen.

LARRY'S PARTY

The story of Larry Weller, an ordinary man, born to working class parents, who discovers a passion for mazes which helps him to find a way through the puzzles of his own life. Orange/Baileys Prize.

THE STONE DIARIES

Born in 1905, Daisy Goodwill drifts through the chapters of childhood, marriage, widowhood, remarriage, motherhood and old age. Daisy attempts to find a way to tell her own story within a novel that is itself about the limitations of autobiography.

UNLESS

With a loving family, good friends and success as a writer, Reta has always enjoyed a life of happiness. Then her daughter abandoned university, family and boyfriend to sit on a street corner with a sign around her neck. At 44, Reta has now discovered the meaning of loss.