Good to a Fault

A compassionate, funny and memorable novel about life and death - and what happens when we try to do the right thing.

There's heartbreak, there's joy, there are parts where you cry - and it's very high quality writing. Well done!

Witty and wise, light and dark, with many unexpected moments.

Good to a Fault is one of those novels you want to tell people about. It's unpretentious and affecting, with characters to remember and themes that linger and resound

The Canadian writer Marina Endicott's second novel, Good to a Fault, won a Commonwealth Writers' Prize, and one can see why. It's just as funny and absorbing as her debut, Open Arms.

Born in British Columbia in 1958, Marina Endicott worked as an actor before moving to London, where she began to write fiction. Endicott's first short story appeared in 1985. Her stories have been anthologized in Coming Attractions and short-listed for the 1993 Journey Prize. Her first novel, Open Arms (2001), was a finalist for the Canada First Novel Award and was broadcast on CBC Radio's Between the Covers in 2003. Her long poem about the Mayerthorpe incident, "The Policeman's Wife, Some Letters", was short-listed for the CBC Literary Awards in 2006. Good to a Fault, was published in Canada by Freehand Books in 2008. It was a finalist for the 2008 Giller Prize and won the Commonwealth Writers Prize for Canada and the Caribbean. She is married with two children and lives in Canada.

Absorbed in her own failings, 43-year-old Clara Purdy crashes her life into a sharp left turn, taking the young family in the other car along with her. When bruises on the mother, Lorraine, prove to be late-stage cancer, Clara moves the three children and their terrible grandmother into her own house while Lorraine undergoes treatment at the local hospital. 
 
We know what is good, but we don't do it. In Good to a Fault, Clara decides to give it a try, and then has to cope with the consequences : exhaustion, fury, hilarity, and unexpected love. But she questions her own motives. Is she acting out of true goodness, or out of guilt? And most shamefully, has she taken the family over simply because she wants one of her own? 
 
In Good to a Fault, award-winning writer Marina Endicott examines what we owe in this life and what we deserve. And the result is a profound and unforgettable novel.

Marina Endicott

A vivid coming of age tale about the beautiful Avery sisters, thrust on the vaudeville stage after their father's death. Set in early 20th-century Canada, it catapults the reader into the beating heart of the travelling theatrical world - the smell of the greasepaint, heat of the spotlights, and high-wire adrenaline are near-tangible. Thrilling and moving this is a glittering jewel of a novel.

There are comforting echoes of both Little Women and Ballet Shoes in this gently absorbing novel about three middle-class sisters forced to support themselves on the American vaudeville circuit after the death of their father ... It's so atmospheric you'll want to throw flowers at the end.

The three Avery sisters ("The Belle Auroras," as they become known on the stage) begin with little in their favour besides youth and hope but each one slowly and steadily evolves into a unique and accomplished artist while navigating her way to adulthood among a cast of extraordinary charmers, charlatans, eccentrics and impresarios. Lauded by Margaret Atwood as "very high quality writing," Marina Endicott's novel delves into the world of Vaudeville theatre, in all its eccentricity.

The Little Shadows is a novel about art and women, and personal fulfilment and the thrill of performing... She has written an entertaining, moving and original work.

The Little Shadows has Endicott's wry sensibility, her pithy lyricism and her skill at pulling the rug out from under the reader's feet. Like the previous novel, this one also concerns itself with big ideas: the point of art, sisterly and familial love and, as the war's shadow extends and darkens, the meaning of life itself.

I couldn't fault the characterisation ... The wedding of the characters to the era makes this book fascinating enough to make me want to go through Marina Endicott's back catalogue. I hope the Endicott home has a broad mantelpiece - if she carries on like this, the awards will keep coming.

The sisters Endicott creates are believable and beautiful, starting out with little but their raw talent and good-natured hope. The novel's charting of their progression through the world of enticing and seductive Vaudeville is wholly captivating, and so heart-warming it might make you want to take to the boards yourself. This is a novel full of glamour, charm and sultry show business, a must-read for anybody with a penchant for the bright lights and the smell of grease paint.

The Little Shadows is my book of the year. Think of your favourite stories about sisters - the gravity, levity and subtlety with which the lives of siblings are woven together; Endicott puts her own spin on that.

MARINA ENDICOTT PRESENTS 
 
THE THREE GRACEFUL AVERY GIRLS 
 
THE SISTER ACT TO TAKE VAUDEVILLE BY STORM 
 
STARRING: AURORA, CLOVER and BELLA 
 
As they set off on the road to fame and fortune, the Avery sisters join a cast of extraordinary and unforgettable characters – charming charlatans, unpredictable eccentrics, and some who seem ordinary but have magical gifts. Taking us behind the curtain and into their lives, THE LITTLE SHADOWS reveals how the art of vaudeville – in all its variety, madness, melodrama, hilarity and sorrow – echoes the art of life itself.

Marina Endicott

Praise for The Little Shadows

A vivid coming of age tale about the beautiful Avery sisters, thrust on the vaudeville stage after their father's death. Set in early 20th-century Canada, it catapults the reader into the beating heart of the travel ...

There are comforting echoes of both Little Women and Ballet Shoes in this gently absorbing novel about three middle-class sisters forced to support themselves on the American vaudeville circuit after t ...

The three Avery sisters ("The Belle Auroras," as they become known on the stage) begin with little in their favour besides youth and hope but each one slowly and steadily evolves into a unique and accomplished artis ...

A vivid coming of age tale about the beautiful Avery sisters, thrust on the vaudeville stage after their father's death. Set in early 20th-century Canada, it catapults the reader into the beating heart of the travel ...

There are comforting echoes of both Little Women and Ballet Shoes in this gently absorbing novel about three middle-class sisters forced to support themselves on the American vaudeville circuit after t ...

The three Avery sisters ("The Belle Auroras," as they become known on the stage) begin with little in their favour besides youth and hope but each one slowly and steadily evolves into a unique and accomplished artis ...

A vivid coming of age tale about the beautiful Avery sisters, thrust on the vaudeville stage after their father's death. Set in early 20th-century Canada, it catapults the reader into the beating heart of the travel ...

There are comforting echoes of both Little Women and Ballet Shoes in this gently absorbing novel about three middle-class sisters forced to support themselves on the American vaudeville circuit after t ...

The three Avery sisters ("The Belle Auroras," as they become known on the stage) begin with little in their favour besides youth and hope but each one slowly and steadily evolves into a unique and accomplished artis ...

Books by Marina Endicott

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