… Kate Story’s second novel.
Wrecked Upon This Shore deals with life’s most significant tests: loving and dying, broken relationships, the drive to heal and the impulse to be whole.
At the novel’s centre is Pearl Lewis: abused by her father at a young age, she is wild, charismatic, and damaged.
We follow Pearl through the eyes of her adult son Stephen, but also from the viewpoint of Mouse, the girl she befriends and falls in love with as a teenager. As a girl growing up in Newfoundland, Mandy, christened Mouse by the seductive, aggressive Pearl, was relatively sheltered. But when Mouse falls for Pearl, the affair changes her life. In the end, Mouse loses almost everything when Pearl leaves her; in fact, Pearl is pregnant when Mouse learns the affair is over.
The child to whom Pearl gives birth is Stephen. Thirty years old when Pearl is diagnosed with cancer, Stephen is in danger of foundering. A net of lies and fragmented stories surround Pearl’s past and his own.
Pearl’s cancer becomes a crucible with the power not only to destroy but also to re-forge relationships. When the dying Pearl summons Mouse, in the final chapters of the novel, all three characters are brought together, and Stephen’s life can at last come into focus.
“I fell in love with these characters: saintly and monstrous, wrecked but not lost – castaways all. Kate Story is one of those rare writers who can plumb the darkness and retrieve from the depths a jewel, a truth, luminous and redemptive. A magical and moving novel. Prepare to be transported.”
— Jessica Grant, author of Come, Thou Tortoise
“Told with intelligence and tenderness, Wrecked Upon This Shore explores a son’s compassion for a dying mother who was far from perfect. It’s less about what happened than about how to live with the aftermath. Kate Story brings a mature, passionate, compelling voice to the modern family dynamic.”
— Robin McGrath, author of award-winning novel The Winterhouse
WHERE TO PURCHASE:
Online Wrecked Upon This Shore is available for purchase at:
amazon.ca, chapters.indigo.ca and directly through the publisher at creativebookpublishing.ca
Or please support your local bookstore and order through them!
Wrecked Upon This Shore is also available as an eBook on both Kindle and Kobo.
MEDIA / PRESS:
Read an interview with Chad Pelley on the east coast literary blog Salty Ink – A Spotlight on Atlantic Canadian Literature – November 11, 2011
“Wrecked Upon This Shore” has been included in Chad Pelley’s Hot reads for cold winter nights
The Telegram, St. John’s, NL – December 16, 2011
Read an interview with Kate posted on bookfridge.com (or visit the website and scroll down) – December 20, 2011
Listen to an interview on CBC Newfoundland & Labrador’s Weekend Arts Magazine (WAM) hosted by Mack Furlong – December 23, 2011
Read a review in The Western Star by Darrell Squires – May 13, 2012
Read a review in The Malahat Review by Rachel Rose
Click here to link to a podcast of an interview on Trent Radio hosted by Ann Douglas – October 18, 2012
Click articles for larger images:
Peterborough Examiner November 15, 2011
The Telegram St. John’s, NL November 3, 2011
The Telegram St. John’s, NL – December 2011
Peterborough Examiner – December 1, 2011
The Malahat Review, Essential East Coast Writing – Autumn 2012
Peterborough Examiner – November 16, 2011
The Labradorian – Happy Valley Goose Bay – May 20, 2013
St. John’s Telegram
EVENTS: (click for larger images)
Peterborough Book Launch
November 17, 2011 – Titles Bookstore
Photos by Steve Guthrie
Kate Story | A writer who insists on performing 