The Opening Sky Paperback by Joan Thomas

Product Details

• Publisher: McClelland & Stewart (2015-10-06)
• Language: English
• Paperback: 368 pages
• ISBN-13: 9780771083945
• Item Weight: 331.13 grams
• Dimensions: 20.29 x 13.16 x 2.57 cm

"Thomas is often compared to Carol Shields, Meg Wolitzer and Jonathan Franzen, but really slips into a category by herself [in The Opening Sky]. . . . [She] takes narrative risks [and] offers no typical solutions. But these risks are the most beautiful: they are the risks worth taking. This is a book worth reading." --Winnipeg Free Press

     A stunning character-driven novel about the human desire to do the right thing, and the even stronger desire to love and to be seen for who we truly are. Deeply felt, sharply observed, and utterly engaging.
     Liz, Aiden, and Sylvie are an urban, urbane, progressive family: Aiden's a therapist who refuses to own a car; Liz is an ambitious professional, a savvy traveler with a flair for decorating; Sylvie is a smart and political 19 year-old, fiercely independent, sensitive to hypocrisy, and crazy in love with her childhood playmate, Noah, a bright young scientist. Things seem to be going according to plan.
     Then the present and the past collide in a crisis that shatters the complacency of all three. Liz and Sylvie are forced to confront a tragedy from years before, when four children went missing at an artists' retreat. In the long shadow of that event, the family is drawn to a dangerous precipice.

About the Author

JOAN THOMAS's debut novel, Reading By Lightning, won the Commonwealth Prize for Best First Book (Canada/Caribbean) and the Amazon.ca Best First Novel Award, and was longlisted for the IMPAC Dublin Award. Her second, Curiosity, was longlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize and the IMPAC Dublin Award, and was a Quill & Quire Book of the Year. Before writing fiction, Joan was a contributing reviewer for the Globe and Mail. Joan lives in Winnipeg. Visit her at www.joanthomas.ca.