Strange Heaven
216 pages
Published: May 28, 2010
Fiction / Novels
Paperback: 9780864926173 $19.99
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.
Published: May 28, 2010
Fiction / Novels
Paperback: 9780864926173 $19.99
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.
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Author
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.
Marina Endicott was born in British Columbia and worked as an actor and director before going to London, England, where she began to write fiction. Her novel Open Arms was nominated for the Amazon/Books in Canada First Novel Award and her second won the Commonwealth Writers Prize for the Canada and Caribbean region.
Awards
Winner: Thomas Head Raddall Award
Winner: Canadian Authors Association Air Canada Award
Winner: Dartmouth Book Award (Fiction)
Winner: Atlantic Independent Booksellers' Choice Award
Shortlisted: Governor General's Award for Fiction
Winner: Canadian Authors Association Air Canada Award
Winner: Dartmouth Book Award (Fiction)
Winner: Atlantic Independent Booksellers' Choice Award
Shortlisted: Governor General's Award for Fiction
Reviews
"An exciting debut ... rivalling Roddy Doyle's black comedies of Dublin life." — Amazon.ca
