The Shore Girl
Kimmel, Fran, narrated by Amanda Barker
$28.99-
Winner of the 2013 Alberta Readers’ Choice Award
Rebee Shore’s life is fragmented. She’s forever on the move, ricocheting around Alberta, guided less than capably by her dysfunctional mother Elizabeth.
The Shore Girl follows Rebee from her toddler to her teen years as she grapples with her mother’s fears and addictions, and her own desire for a normal life. Through a series of narrators—family, friends, teachers, strangers, and Rebee herself—her family’s dark past, and the core of her mother’s despair, are slowly revealed.
Bespeak Audio Editions brings Canadian voices to the world with audiobook editions of some of the country’s greatest works of literature, performed by Canadian actors.
Fran Kimmel is the author of The Shore Girl, which was named a CBC Top-40 Book and won the Alberta Readers’ Choice Award in 2013. Fran’s short stories have appeared in literary journals from coast to coast and have twice been selected for The Journey Prize Stories anthology. Born and raised in Calgary, Fran now writes and teaches in Lacombe, AB.
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Published: November 2019
ISBN: 9781773055299
Duration: 7:27
Originally published by: NeWest Press
Reviews
“Rebee Shore is a bittersweet creation: heart-rending yet utterly unsentimental, a frail warrior who both distresses and disarms everyone who encounters her—including the reader.” — Annabel Lyon, author of The Golden Mean
“In this compassionate novel, Fran Kimmel achieves a delicate creative rendering of loneliness: solitary strangers looking for the promise that you don't have to end like you started. Her characters lodge deep in the reader long after the last page is turned.” — Rosemary Nixon, author of Kalila
“The Shore Girl's kooky yet realistic characters, true-to-life smells and sounds and scenes conjure up an unidealized world both familiar and alien. Like Harmony's van speeding through Wild Rose Country, it leads the reader into an in-depth examination of human emotions and motives.” — Laurie Glenn Norris, Telegraph-Journal
“An absorbing and searing portrait of a young girl lost in a fleeing journey of desperation, secrecy, loneliness, wanting, hope and compassion.” — Michael Davie, author of Fishing for Bacon
“Raw and heartbreaking.... Kimmel's debut will appeal to those who are drawn to dark, gritty family dramas, rife with vulnerable characters in turmoil.” — Quill & Quire
“[Rebee's] life is constant chaos, a fact reinforced by the book's fractured narration.... Though she remains a mystery to nearly everyone who crosses her path, we gradually piece together Rebee's backstory and watch her mature, and The Shore Girl slowly unfolds its tragedy.” — David Berry, National Post