"Nothing short of astonishing." -- New Yorker

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

For all of her life, 44 year old Reta Winters has enjoyed the useful monotony of happiness: a loving family, good friends, growing success as a writer of light 'summertime' fiction. But this placid existence is cracked wide open 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.

The final book from Pulitzer Prize-winner Carol Shields, Unless, is a harrowing but ultimately consoling story of one family's anguish and healing, proving Shields's mastery of extraordinary fictions about ordinary life.

--London Times (Sunday)

Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Published: 01/03/2006
ISBN: 9780060874407
Pages: 320
Weight: 0.69lbs
Size: 8.01h x 5.36w x 0.89d
Accelerated Reader Quiz #/Name: 65928 / Unless
Reading Level: 7.4 / Interest Level: Upper Grade / Point Value: 12