Rattlestick

Edith Sharpe takes the No. 9 bus every morning to the insurance agency where she works in the English coastal town of Bogmire. She cares for her invalid mother, Ruby, a quarrelsome woman who hasn't a kind word for anyone, especially Edith. The one thing that brightens Edith's life is her occasional trysts with her mild-mannered, married lover, Edwin Meach. Her days are as gray as the skies over Bogmire ... until a shattering event cracks open her life, letting in a brilliance that she never could have dreamed of.

Brenda Foster's keenly observed story explores all the humanity and complexity, the struggles and the humor, and always the unexpected in the lives of Bogmire's citizens.

"All Passengers," the story of a young woman's painful journey to self-discovery in a working-class English town, crackles with authenticity, wit, and understanding. An impressive debut novel.

-Abby Wasserman, writer, editor, and teacher

Brenda Foster was born in Lancashire, England, in 1939. After qualifying as a registered nurse and later as a midwife, she emigrated to Canada, where she met her husband. In 1978, after ten years in Northern California, she moved to Australia with her husband and two daughters. Widowed in 2002, she now lives in Tiburon, California. ＂All Passengers＂ is her first novel.