Duet

Carol Shields’s novels include Larry’s Party (1997), winner of the 1998 Orange Prize, and The Stone Diaries (1993), winner of the Pulitzer Prize and shortlisted for the Booker Prize. She reached this shortlist for the second time in 2002 with Unless.

‘Carol Shields sings with the charm of a true siren.’ Guardian‘Carol Shield’s prose is addictive. Her writing is both smoothly intelligent and sensually immediate, conflating concrete domestic realities with the elemental and miraculous.’ Sunday Telegraph‘Her perceptions are so quick, her style is so acute, that she can tack a breath to the page and skewer a thought on the wing. It is her speciality to isolate moments that remain distinct in the mind for years, perhaps for a lifetime.’ Hilary Mantel, Sunday Times‘Shields is about the best we have. She does not just express what oft was thought; she snags the shadows of those thoughts, the thoughts we did not know we had. The effect – at once elating and visceral – feels like a conjurer pulling a handkerchief from your heart.’ Daily Telegraph