Critical Injuries - Hardcover

Barfoot, Joan

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1582432082 ISBN 13: 9781582432083

Publisher: Counterpoint, 2002

Synopsis

Forty-nine-year-old Isla revels in her career and happy second marriage despite her first husband's shocking actions, while seventeen-year-old Roddy, eager to escape small-town life, plans to move to the glamorous city with his best friend, until an ill-timed encounter changes everything. 25,000 first printing.

About this title

About the Author:

Joan Barfoot's quirky, wise, and witty books have been finding enthusiastic readers since 1978, when Abra won the Books in Canada First Novel Award. She is the author of eight previous novels, including Getting Over Edgar and Dancing in the Dark, and is the winner of the prestigious Marian Engel Award. She lives in Toronto.

From Library Journal:

In her eighth novel, Barfoot (Getting Over Edgar) explores the effects of an act of violence on both the perpetrator and the victim. At 49, Isla has found happiness in her second marriage to attorney Lyle. She loves her two grown children, too, although she'd be the first to admit that she's not happy about their lives: daughter Alix has joined a cult, and son Jamie is drifting from job to job after recovering from a teenage drug habit. Living in the same community as Isla and her family, 17-year-old Roddy is restless and dissatisfied with small-town life. In order to finance their scheme to run away to the nearest big city, Roddy and best friend Mike set up a fake robbery at the ice cream store where Mike works. Isla enters the store at precisely the wrong moment, Roddy panics, a gun goes off, and both Isla and Roddy must learn to live with the consequences: Isla is a paraplegic, and Roddy spends more than a year in jail. Alternating viewpoints between these two characters, Barfoot brilliantly conveys how out of tragedy can come not only acceptance of changed circumstances but a sort of grace. Readers can't help but admire Isla's courage. All of award-winning Canadian novelist Barfoot's earlier books are out of print in the United States, which is a shame; after finishing Critical Injuries, those who enjoy good, character-driven fiction will surely want to read her earlier books as well. Recommended for public libraries large and small. Nancy Pearl, Washington Ctr. for the Book, Seattle
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Counterpoint
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 1582432082
• ISBN 13: 9781582432083
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 336