On the Shores of Darkness, There Is Light cover art

On the Shores of Darkness, There Is Light

A Novel

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About this listen

From the acclaimed author of Lemon comes a clever and heartbreaking new novel of love and revelation.

Harriet is 11 going on 30. Her mixed-media art is a source of wonder to her younger brother, Irwin, but an unmitigated horror to the panoply of insufficiently grown-up grown-ups who surround her. She plans to run away to Algonquin Park, hole up in a cabin like Tom Thomson, and paint trees; and so, to fund her escape, she runs errands for the seniors who inhabit the Shangrila, the decrepit apartment building that houses her fractured family.

Determined, resourceful, and a little reckless, Harriet tries to navigate the clueless adults around her, dumpster dives for the flotsam and jetsam that fuels her art, and attempts to fathom her complicated feelings for Irwin, who suffers from hydrocephalus. On the other hand, Irwin's love for Harriet is not conflicted at all. She's his compass. But Irwin himself must untangle the web of the human heart.

Masterful and piercingly funny, Strube is at the top of her considerable form in this deliciously subversive story of love and revelation.

©2016 Cordelia Strube (P)2016 ECW Press Coming of Age Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Heartfelt

What the critics say

"Quietly elegiac and despairing, the novel keeps true to Strube's singular vision." ( Maclean's)
"Strube creates an entire world of love and loss, humour and heartbreak.... The writing, on a line-by-line basis, serves as a reminder that Strube is one of Canada's more expressive and creative prose stylists. It is, at heart, a uniquely intimate exploration of the perilous fragility of the human body, and the indomitable strength of the human soul." ( Toronto Star)
All stars
Most Relevant
A very good and heart wrenching story, but the ending was too abrupt, and left far too many things hanging and unanswered. Otherwise, I found it well written and well performed.

heart wrenching, but incomplete.

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I loved this book from start to finish. Brilliant. I'll be listening to it again very soon.

Absolutely LOVE this book

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