Ellen McGinty: sexy, impulsive, loud-mouthed, chock full of regrets. In middle age she sells the house she raised her daughters in, slips off the shell of her old life, and steps out for a first, tentative foray into real contentment--directly into the path of a man twenty years her junior. Her story explodes into multiple points of view. Through the eyes of her lover, Matt, her ex-husband, Larry, her two daughters (one a former addict), her grandson, and a friend who both supports and betrays her, we watch Ellen negotiate the middle years of her tumultuous life as the pieces of who she is finally come together. In its entirety, Ellen in Pieces explores love in its varied forms, the nature of regret (and the possibility of recovery from it), and that greatest human test, mortality.
Exquisitely written, absorbing and intelligent, this new novel by Caroline Adderson shows her at the top of her form. Ellen in Pieces is a deeply affecting story, an emotional mirror for all our lives.
CAROLINE ADDERSON is the author of four novels (A History of Forgetting, Sitting Practice, The Sky Is Falling, Ellen in Pieces) and two collections of short stories (Bad Imaginings, Pleased to Meet You), as well as many books for young readers. Published in eleven countries, her work has received numerous award nominations, including for the Sunday Times EFG Short Story Award, the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, two Commonwealth Writers’ Prizes, the Governor General’s Literary Award, the Rogers’ Trust Fiction Prize and the Scotiabank Giller Prize. Winner of three BC Book Prizes and three CBC Literary Prizes, Caroline was also the recipient of the Marian Engel Award for mid-career achievement. She is the program director of the Writing Studio at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity.