Unless

For all of her days, Reta Winters has enjoyed the useful monotony of happiness: a loving family, good friends, growing success as a writer of light fiction, novels ''for summertime.'' This placid existence cracks open one fearful day when her beloved oldest daughter, Norah, drops out of life to sit on a gritty street corner, silent but for the sign around her neck that reads ''GOODNESS.'' Reta''s search for what drove her daughter to such a desperate statement turns into an unflinching and surprisingly funny meditation on where we find meaning and hope.

Warmth, passion and wisdom come together in Carol Shields'' remarkably supple prose. Unless, a harrowing but ultimately consoling story of one family''s anguish and healing, proves her mastery of extraordinary fictions about ordinary life.