Good to a Fault

A compassionate, funny and memorable novel about life and death - and what happens when we try to do the right thing.

There's heartbreak, there's joy, there are parts where you cry - and it's very high quality writing. Well done!

Witty and wise, light and dark, with many unexpected moments.

Good to a Fault is one of those novels you want to tell people about. It's unpretentious and affecting, with characters to remember and themes that linger and resound

The Canadian writer Marina Endicott's second novel, Good to a Fault, won a Commonwealth Writers' Prize, and one can see why. It's just as funny and absorbing as her debut, Open Arms.

Born in British Columbia in 1958, Marina Endicott worked as an actor before moving to London, where she began to write fiction. Endicott's first short story appeared in 1985. Her stories have been anthologized in Coming Attractions and short-listed for the 1993 Journey Prize. Her first novel, Open Arms (2001), was a finalist for the Canada First Novel Award and was broadcast on CBC Radio's Between the Covers in 2003. Her long poem about the Mayerthorpe incident, "The Policeman's Wife, Some Letters", was short-listed for the CBC Literary Awards in 2006. Good to a Fault, was published in Canada by Freehand Books in 2008. It was a finalist for the 2008 Giller Prize and won the Commonwealth Writers Prize for Canada and the Caribbean. She is married with two children and lives in Canada.

Absorbed in her own failings, 43-year-old Clara Purdy crashes her life into a sharp left turn, taking the young family in the other car along with her. When bruises on the mother, Lorraine, prove to be late-stage cancer, Clara moves the three children and their terrible grandmother into her own house while Lorraine undergoes treatment at the local hospital. 
 
We know what is good, but we don't do it. In Good to a Fault, Clara decides to give it a try, and then has to cope with the consequences : exhaustion, fury, hilarity, and unexpected love. But she questions her own motives. Is she acting out of true goodness, or out of guilt? And most shamefully, has she taken the family over simply because she wants one of her own? 
 
In Good to a Fault, award-winning writer Marina Endicott examines what we owe in this life and what we deserve. And the result is a profound and unforgettable novel.

Marina Endicott

MARINA ENDICOTT PRESENTS 
 
THE THREE GRACEFUL AVERY GIRLS 
 
THE SISTER ACT TO TAKE VAUDEVILLE BY STORM 
 
STARRING: AURORA, CLOVER and BELLA 
 
As they set off on the road to fame and fortune, the Avery sisters join a cast of extraordinary and unforgettable characters – charming charlatans, unpredictable eccentrics, and some who seem ordinary but have magical gifts. Taking us behind the curtain and into their lives, THE LITTLE SHADOWS reveals how the art of vaudeville – in all its variety, madness, melodrama, hilarity and sorrow – echoes the art of life itself.

Marina Endicott

The Little Shadows

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