Strange Heaven

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Winner, Atlantic Independent Booksellers Choice Award, Canadian Authors Association Air Canada Award, Dartmouth Book Award, and Thomas Head Raddall Award
Shortlisted, Governor General’s Award for Fiction

She’s depressed, they say. Apathetic. Bridget Murphy, almost eighteen, has had it with her zany family. When she is transferred to the psych ward after giving birth and putting her baby up for adoption, it is a welcome relief — even with the manic ranting of a teen stripper and come-ons of another delusional inmate.

But this oasis of relative calm is short-lived. Christmas is coming, and Uncle Albert arrives to whisk her back to the bedlam of home and the booze-soaked social life that got her into trouble in the first place. Her grandmother raves from her bed, banging the wall with a bedpan through a litany of profanities. Her father curses while her mother tries to keep the lid on developmentally delayed Uncle Rollie. The baby’s father wants to sue her, and her friends don’t get that she’s changed.

AUTHOR

Lynn Coady

Lynn Coady now lives in Edmonton, though she was born and raised in Cape Breton. She has published a collection of short stories, Play the Monster Blind, and four novels. Her first novel, Strange Heaven, was nominated for the 1998 Governor General’s Award for Fiction, while her latest novel, The Antagonist, was shortlisted for the 2011 Scotiabank Giller Prize.

AUTHOR

Marina Endicott

Marina Endicott’s novel Good to a Fault won the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize Best Book Award, Canada and the Caribbean, was a finalist for the Scotiabank Giller Prize, and one of The Globe and Mail’s Top 100 Books of 2008. Her next, The Little Shadows, was shortlisted for the Governor General’s award and longlisted for the Giller Prize, as was Close to Hugh. Her debut novel, Open Arms, was a finalist for the 2001 Amazon/Books in Canada First Novel Award and broadcast on CBC Radio’s Between the Covers. Endicott lives in Alberta most of the time.

Reviews

She’s depressed, they say. Apathetic. Bridget Murphy, almost eighteen, has had it with her zany family. When she is transferred to the children’s hospital’s psych ward after giving birth to a baby and putting it up for adoption, it is a welcome relief — even with the manic ranting of a teen stripper and lurid come-ons of a young megalomaniac.

But this oasis of relative calm is short-lived. Christmas is coming, and Uncle Albert arrives to whisk Bridget back to the bedlam of home and the booze-soaked social life that got her into trouble in the first place. Her grandmother raves from her bed, banging the wall with a bedpan through a litany of profanities. Her father curses while her mother tries to keep the lid on developmentally delayed Uncle Rollie. The baby’s father wants retribution, and her friends don’t get that she’s changed.

“An exciting debut … rivalling Roddy Doyle’s black comedies of Dublin life.”
– Amazon.ca

Awards

There are no awards found for this book.

Reader Reviews

Details

Dimensions:

216 Pages
8.5in * 5.5in * 0.505in
259gr

Published:

May 28, 2010

Publisher:

Goose Lane Editions

ISBN:

9780864926173

9780864926913 – EPUB

Book Subjects:

FICTION / Literary

Featured In:

All Books

Language:

eng

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Other books by Marina Endicott

Open Arms

By (author): Marina Endicott