Canadian playwright and novelist Cordelia Strube has done it again! On The Shores of Darkness, There is Light is the latest novel under her belt and brings to you a clever, but heartbreaking story of love and revelation.
This novel follows eleven-year-old Harriet, who runs errands for the zany seniors in her complex to save money to escape the un-grownup grownups that surround her. With no one around to supervise because of her brother’s all consuming hydrocephalus, Harriet must decide if leaving her young brother behind will break an already fractured family.
WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING:
“Strube captures a madcap sense of momentum and consequence that never falters or overwhelms. Each character is part of Strube’s deliberately constructed card tower, the building of which, as readers anticipate its eventual fall, provides the narrative with a tremendous amount of strength and personality.” — Publishers Weekly, starred review
“A masterful blend of comedy and tragedy . . . The tapestry of humanity that Strube presents is richly detailed and profoundly moving.” — Quill & Quire, starred review
“Strube’s true talent, which was as readily on display in her last novel, 2012’s Milosz, is for layering characters and situations and subplots on top of each other, one by one, until the entire Shangrila apartment building buzzes like a beehive.” — Globe and Mail
“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
“Quietly elegiac and despairing, the novel keeps true to Strube’s singular vision.” — Maclean’s
“Strube is the dark horse favourite to succeed Alice Munro as a chronicler of melancholy stories about young girls. Her new heroine, Harriet, is a precocious artist who runs errands for seniors in her ramshackle apartment building, hoping to save enough money to run away to Algonquin Park.” — Toronto Life
“It’s this sassy voice and not really like an 11-year-old would actually speak but it completely works. What is so beautiful about this story is that – at its heart – it’s a story about the relationship between siblings.” — CBC Radio’s Day 6 “Should I Read It”
SAVE THE DATES
July 15–17, 2016: Author appearance at the Lakefield Literary Festival
July 18–24 2016: Creative Writing workshop with Cordelia at the Leacock Summer Festival in Orillia, ON from July 19-24, 2016 (details here)
September 16–18, 2016: Author appearance at the Eden Mills Writers' Festival
September 25, 2016: Reading and signing at The Word on the Street festival at the Toronto Harbourfront Centre
September 23–October 1, 2016: Author appearance at the Thin Air Winnipeg International Writers Festival
October 21 and 23, 2016: Panel and reading on the 21st, Sunday Brunch on the 23rd at The Vancouver International Writers Festival