Good to a Fault

Absorbed in her own failings, 43-year-old Clara Purdy crashes her life into a sharp left turn, taking the young family in the other car along with her. When bruises on the mother, Lorraine, prove to be late-stage cancer, Clara moves the three children and their terrible grandmother into her own house while Lorraine undergoes treatment at the local hospital.

We know what is good, but we don't do it. In Good to a Fault, Clara decides to give it a try, and then has to cope with the consequences : exhaustion, fury, hilarity, and unexpected love. But she questions her own motives. Is she acting out of true goodness, or out of guilt? And most shamefully, has she taken the family over simply because she wants one of her own?

In Good to a Fault, award-winning writer Marina Endicott examines what we owe in this life and what we deserve. And the result is a profound and unforgettable novel.

Review: There's heartbreak, there's joy, there are parts where you cry - and it's very high quality writing. Well done! -- Margaret Atwood * Giller Prize Jury remarks *

Witty and wise, light and dark, with many unexpected moments. -- Colm Toibin

Good to a Fault is one of those novels you want to tell people about. It's unpretentious and affecting, with characters to remember and themes that linger and resound * Meg Wolitzer, author of The Ten-Year Nap *

The Canadian writer Marina Endicott's second novel, Good to a Fault, won a Commonwealth Writers' Prize, and one can see why. It's just as funny and absorbing as her debut, Open Arms. * Patrick Gale *