Girl in Shades - ECW Press

Girl in Shades

Baggio, Allison

$11.95
  • Sweetly funny and deeply perceptive, Girl in Shades offers a fresh take on what it is to grow up and discover who you really are

    “An immensely satisfying coming-of-age tale and a remarkable first novel.” — Chatelaine

    Maya Devine has a strange ability to see colors that surround other people — and sometimes even to hear the thoughts in their heads. But even with these gifts, she still struggles to understand her mother, Marigold. Desperate for enlightenment, Marigold drags Maya to library lectures on making money and gardening as part of her home schooling; attends AA meetings even though she never has more than two drinks at a time; and conscripts Maya for the very personal crusade of spreading the words of the Bhagavad Gita from street corners.

    When Marigold is diagnosed with cancer and vows to spend her final days in the tepee she’s set up in the backyard, neighbors and strangers — believing the dying Marigold to be a prophet — camp out in the family’s front yard. As her father grows ever more distant, Maya finds solace in the music of 1980s teen idol Corey Hart — but as she faces her losses, she must eventually find a vision for her future on her own.

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  • Allison Baggio’s fiction and commentaries have appeared in publications all across Canada, including Room, subTerrain, Today’s Parent and the Toronto Star. She is a graduate of York University and the Humber School for Writers. Girl in Shades is her first novel. She lives in Whitby, ON.

  • Published: October 2011

    ISBN: 9781770410503

    Dimensions: 5.5 x 8.5 in.

    Pages: 300

Reviews

“An immensely satisfying coming-of-age tale and a remarkable first novel.” — Chatelaine Magazine

“The feelings are always authentic and well rendered.” — Winnipeg Free Press

“An intimate, character driven drama … Girl in Shades is a poignant coming of age story as Maya struggles to understand and overcome the truths and lies that define her.” — Book’d Out

“Baggio has a well-accomplished background in writing, which helps explain her undeniable talent.” — Whitby This Week

“Baggio’s colorful writing and quirky imagery give life to the story as a whole, propping up even the direst of circumstances … It’s not outwardly funny, but quietly humorous, like the whole thing is an inside joke between the reader and the author.” — The Weekender