Suddenly - Softcover

Burnard, Bonnie

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0006485243 ISBN 13: 9780006485247

Publisher: Phyllis Bruce Books Perennial, 2010

Synopsis

Compassionate, honest and unsparing, this extraordinary novel captures the many shades of friendship and love through the story of three women who are lifetime friends.

Sandra, Collen and Jude share sexual secrets, decorating tips, counsel on marriage, even a hairdresser. Despite their differences and occasional snarls, the friendship only grows stronger over time, and their partners, Jack, Richard and Gus, go along with it, letting it shape their lives. Now, with Sandra's crisis, everyone must find a way to endure the present and imagine the future. Sweeping through and beyond the second half of the twentieth century -- from men on the moon to 9/11 -- this intimate story of friendship creates an indelible portrait of three women balanced on the knife edge of middle age.

Suddenly is classic Burnard: subtle, witty, revelatory, brave. This is a seminal novel with the power to change the way women -- and men -- understand one another. 

About this title

About the Author:

BONNIE BURNARD is the author of two novels and two short story collections. Her first story collection, Women of Influence, won the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best First Book. Casino & Other Stories was shortlisted for the inaugural Giller Prize and won the Saskatchewan Book of the Year Award. Her first novel, A Good House, won the Giller Prize and the CBA People’s Choice Award and was published around the world in many languages. Her second novel, Suddenly, was a Globe and Mail Book of the Year, praised by critics as “a smart, consuming read” (Toronto Star) and “an unassuming masterpiece” (The Globe and Mail). A recipient of the Marian Engel Award, Bonnie Burnard lives in London, Ontario.

From Booklist:

Sandra, Colleen, and Jude have been close friends throughout much of their adult lives. Now in their sixties, they and their spouses share many treasured experiences between them and had planned on many more ahead, but Sandra is dying. Now in her final days, she wants desperately to give these best-loved friends something they can hold onto for the rest of their lives. Together they revisit the past, from the painful moments to the joyful ones, rediscovering all the things that brought them together. In the wake of Sandra’s death, though, Colleen and Jude face emotional trials that affect them as individuals as well as their relationships to each other and their spouses. Moving fluidly between the friends’ current viewpoints and flashbacks, Burnard (The Good House, 1999) captures the emotional complexity and confusion of losing a loved one. Instead of focusing solely on the pain of loss, she instills a note of hopefulness. With believable characters and a heartwarming message, this story about families, the ones we’re born with and the ones we choose, is a deeply moving, thought-provoking read. --Cortney Ophoff

About this edition

• Publisher: Phyllis Bruce Books Perennial
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 0006485243
• ISBN 13: 9780006485247
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 336