The Unfinished World

Distraught after her grandmother Nora’s death, Pearl scatters her ashes in the places Nora loved. As she retraces her grandmother’s last journey, she recovers a series of handmade dolls that have been handed down in the family for generations. Hidden within each is a tiny note from grandmother to granddaughter. Together, these dolls and the messages they carry lead Pearl to recall and recount tales given to her as a child. It is these stories, ranging from the semi-mythic past to the present, that enable Pearl to see her life and her struggles against the larger scale of human survival, dislocation, war, and immigration as well as love and responsibility to the future. Pearl’s mysterious gift of communication ultimately allies her with the survival of another species and also provides the key to unlocking love and happiness for herself.

The Unfinished World is a timely reminder that second chances are possible, as are deep and fundamental connections with the natural world.

Marilyn Bowering is a Canadian novelist and poet who grew up in Victoria, B.C. and lives there now. Her first novel, To All Appearances A Lady, was a New York Times Notable Book. Her second novel, Visible Worlds, was short-listed for the prestigious Orange Prize, nominated for the Dublin IMPAC Prize, and awarded the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize. Visible Worlds was praised by The Independent as ＂a tour de force ? a wonderful piece of storytelling＂ and by The New York Times Book Review as ＂a vast, sprawling feast of a book.＂ The Globe and Mail called Marilyn’s novel What it Takes to Be Human, ＂a great novel? [Bowering] does not seek moments to be brilliant: those moments just arrive.＂ Marilyn’s most recent work, More Richly in Earth, part memoir and part literary investigation of a female Scottish Gaelic bard, was long-listed for the Saltire Prize. She is also the librettist for Marilyn Forever (Gavin Bryars) and the author of essays including ＂When We Walked on the Backs of Fish＂ in Green Matters.