The Little Shadows

By: Marina Endicott

Narrated by: Barbara Barnes

Here is the eagerly anticipated new novel from a brilliant writer whose last book, Good to a Fault, was shortlisted for the prestigious Giller Prize and won the Commonwealth Prize for Canada and the Caribbean.

The Little Shadows revolves around three sisters in the world of vaudeville before and during the First World War. We follow the lives of all three in turn: Aurora, the eldest and most beautiful, who is 16 when the book opens; thoughtful Clover, a year younger; and the youngest sister, joyous headstrong sprite Bella, who is 13. The girls, overseen by their fond but barely coping Mama, are forced to make their living as a singing act after the untimely death of their father. They begin with little besides youth and hope, but Marina Endicott’s genius is to show how the three girls slowly and steadily evolve into true artists even as they navigate their way to adulthood among a cast of extraordinary characters - some of them charming charlatans, some of them unpredictable eccentrics, and some of them just ordinary-seeming humans with magical gifts.

Using her gorgeous prose and extraordinary insight, Endicott lures us onto the brightly lit stage and then into the little shadows that lurk behind the curtain, and reveals how the art of vaudeville - in all its variety, madness, melodrama, hilarity, and sorrow - echoes the art of life itself.

A Globe and Mail Best Book

©2011 Marina Endicott (P)2018 Anchor Canada

Critic reviews

2011, Scotiabank Giller Prize, Nominated

“I don't want to diminish the accomplishment of this book by using tired adjectives of description (brilliant, compelling, rich, dramatic, sexy) or understate the power of the characters (funny, strong, tragic, brave and, yes, sexy)—so I'll simplify: the best book I've read in a long, long time; it deserves to be a contender for every major literary prize this fall." (CBC.ca, Linden MacIntyre, author of The Bishop’s Man)