Unless

<p><strong>Nothing short of astonishing. -- <em>New Yorker</em></strong></p><p><strong>A thing of beauty--lucidly written artfully ordered riddled with riddles and undergirded with dark layers of philosophical meditations. -- <em>Los Angeles Times</em></strong></p><p><strong>The final book from Pulitzer Prize-winning author Carol Shields <em>Unless </em> is a harrowing but ultimately consoling story of one family's anguish and healing proving Shields's mastery of extraordinary fiction about ordinary life.</strong></p><p>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.</p><br/>