Strange Heaven - Softcover

Coady, Lynn

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0864926170 ISBN 13: 9780864926173

Publisher: Goose Lane Editions, 2010

Synopsis

Winner, Atlantic Independent Booksellers Choice Award, Canadian Authors Association Air Canada Award, Dartmouth Book Award, and Thomas Head Raddall Award

Shortlisted, Governor General's Award for Fiction

She's depressed, they say. Apathetic. Bridget Murphy, almost eighteen, has had it with her zany family. When she is transferred to the psych ward after giving birth and putting her baby up for adoption, it is a welcome relief — even with the manic ranting of a teen stripper and come-ons of another delusional inmate.

But this oasis of relative calm is short-lived. Christmas is coming, and Uncle Albert arrives to whisk her back to the bedlam of home and the booze-soaked social life that got her into trouble in the first place. Her grandmother raves from her bed, banging the wall with a bedpan through a litany of profanities. Her father curses while her mother tries to keep the lid on developmentally delayed Uncle Rollie. The baby's father wants to sue her, and her friends don't get that she's changed.

About this title

From the Publisher:

Winner - 1998 Canadian Authors' Association Award for the most promising writer under 30 years of age.

Winner - 1998 Dartmouth Book Award

Winner - 1999 Atlantic Booksellers' Choice Award.

The book was nominated for a 1998 Governor General's Award for Fiction and the 1998 Thomas Raddall Fiction Award

Picked as one of top 100 books of 1998 by the Globe and Mail

Picked as one of the top ten books of 1998 by the Vancouver Sun

Picked as one of the top ten books of 1998 by the New Brunswick Reader

From the Back Cover:

She's depressed, they say. Apathetic. Bridget Murphy, almost eighteen, has had it with her zany family. When she is transferred to the children's hospital's psych ward after giving birth to a baby and putting it up for adoption, it is a welcome relief -- even with the manic ranting of a teen stripper and lurid come-ons of a young megalomaniac.

But this oasis of relative calm is short-lived. Christmas is coming, and Uncle Albert arrives to whisk Bridget back to the bedlam of home and the booze-soaked social life that got her into trouble in the first place. Her grandmother raves from her bed, banging the wall with a bedpan through a litany of profanities. Her father curses while her mother tries to keep the lid on developmentally delayed Uncle Rollie. The baby's father wants retribution, and her friends don't get that she's changed.

About this edition

• Publisher: Goose Lane Editions
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 0864926170
• ISBN 13: 9780864926173
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 3
• Number of pages: 216