Various Miracles: Stories - Softcover

Shields, Carol

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1480459836 ISBN 13: 9781480459830

Publisher: Open Road Media, 2013

Synopsis

The small miracles of our day-to-day lives are on captivating display in this unforgettable collection by Pulitzer Prize winner Carol Shields
Various Miracles brings together twenty-one short stories, modern parables that illuminate the mysteries of everyday existence.
In the title story, four strangers on a bus are all reading the same book. In “Fragility,” Ivy’s husband reflects on their marriage, the death of their young son, Christopher, and the plane ride that will deliver them to a new life.
From “The Metaphor Is Dead – Pass It On” to “Home” to “Others”—in which a couple’s act of generosity is repaid in annual Christmas cards with no return address—this collection is by turns witty, inventive, and moving. Whether portraying a violinist yearning to break free of overprotective parents or an elderly widow mowing her lawn to the thunderous timpani of memory, Carol Shields depicts the struggles of ordinary people caught up in extraordinary circumstances. It’s a world where magic coexists with reality, and where leaps of faith and acts of kindness create their own miracles.

About this title

Book Description

Carol Shields wrote dazzling, haunting stories of lives just like ours, turning our interior worlds into beautiful labyrinths—a writer worthy of comparison to fellow Canadian greats Alice Munro and Margaret Atwood.

From the Inside Flap

The stories collected here offer an entrancing look at some of the various miracles of everyday life, the quirks of chance and coincidence, life's setbacks and improvisations. Carol Shields deftly draws us into the lives of a broad range of sharply observed characters, from the brilliant young violinist smothered by an overprotective family, to the elderly widow mowing her lawn while a long, passionate life buzzes around in her memory.

Blending wit and compassion, Shields illuminates moments when ordinary people face extraordinary circumstances, declarations of love and revelations that transform their lives. Sharp, skeptical and sympathetic, this collection presents Shields at her inimitable best in twenty-one miracles of the storyteller's art.

About this edition

• Publisher: Open Road Media
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 1480459836
• ISBN 13: 9781480459830
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 226