Happenstance by Carol Shields
The beautiful irony of Happenstance is that its novels are both bound together and held apart by the strength of the marriage they describe. Rupert Christiansen, Harpers and Queen‘A compassionate, funny, multi-layered work about the elusive nature of historyWith dazzling deftness Shields demonstrates the alienation innate in the most loving relationships between the sexes. Taken as one story or two, this is a remarkable, perceptive and painfully accurate work that yields more with each reading.’ Sunday Times
‘An instinct for the patterns of everyday speech, a willingness to ferret out psychological nuances and a gift for investing her characters with the appearance of a living, breathing reality. Shields has a generous and unblinking sense of the complexity of forces which draw people to one another.’ Jonathon Coe, Guardian
‘A celebration of marriage as historical accident, it makes a delightful portrait of a partnership, full of quirky humour between two people who are at once familiars and strangers to each other.’ Antonia Bremner, The Times
‘Shields is an acute recorder of contemporary mores. This novel resounds with a humanity and generosity that is truly memorable.’ Kevin Loader, Daily Telegraph
‘The single biggest pleasure, though, remains Shield’s prose, at once dense and duplicate. Its great strength has always been its ability to capture small moments and make them important.’ Literary Review
Carol Shields’s novels include Larry’s Party (1997) – winner of the 1998 Orange Prize – and The Stone Diaries (1993), winner of the Pulitzer Prize and short-listed for the Booker Prize. She has lived in Canada since 1957, and is the Chancellor of the University of Winnipeg.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9781841154688 |
| ISBN 10 | 1841154687 |
| Title | Happenstance |
| Author | Carol Shields |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | HarperCollins Publishers |
| Year published | 2003-03-03 |
| Number of pages | 400 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |