Kit's Law - Softcover

Morrissey, Donna

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0340769122 ISBN 13: 9780340769126

Publisher: Sceptre, 2001

Synopsis

In a wild gully beside a village on the rocky shores of Newfoundland lives 14-year old Kit. Her grandmother Lizzie is her anchor and her solace. Kit's mother Josie, mentally disabled, inarticulate, and child-like, is their burden. Kit's father is unknown - one of the numerous men in the town who have sexually used and abused Josie. Kit, stigmatized as the Gully Tramp's Girl, can fend off the town's cruel snobs and oily do-gooders, as long as Lizzie is alive. But when Lizzie dies suddenly, Kit's fragile world is shaken. She is determined to remain at home to care for Josie, but she has few allies - the villagers want to put Josie in an institution and send Kit to an orphanage. And there is another menace in Haire's Hollow - the violent rapist and killer known as Shine. It is he who sets in motion the train of events that lead to tragedy.

About this title

Product Description:

Kit's Law

Review:

Donna Morrissey has created in KIT'S LAW an extraordinary trinity of women . . . Comparisons to Annie Proulx are inevitable, but KIT's LAW exists in the valley of its own saying, and in the directness of its tone, establishes its own authority (Thomas Keneally)

'Donna Morrissey has created in KIT'S LAW an extraordinary trinity of women, and charted for our vast entertainment their piquant and heroic adjustments in relation to those who have power in Newfoundland's Haire's Hollow - men such as the starchy Reverend Ropson, his son Sid, the local doctor, and the murdering, raping jailbird Shine. Comparisons to Annie Proulx are inevitable, but KIT's LAW exists in the valley of its own saying, and in the directness of its tone, establishes its own authority' Thomas Keneally

'Donna Morrissey's novel, Kit's Law, lures you in with a soft, poetic beginning, then wrenches you into the harsh realities of life for 14-year old Kit Pitman, who lives in an isolated Newfoundland outport. Morrissey understands the music of the language here and captures everything from the soft sonorous undertone of the sea to the shrill high notes of the self-righteous citizens who make life difficult for a young girl trying to come to grips with a complex identity. The novel carries a potent emotional impact that stays with you long after you walk away from the story. It doesn't read like a writer's first novel. It sounds as if Morrissey has been honing her craft for decades. Kit's Law is a wonderful addition to the great canon of Newfoundland literature."' Lesley Choyce, author of World Enough and Nova Scotia: Shaped by the Sea

A stunning debut novel from a very talented writer (The Telegram, St. John's, Newfoundland)

KIT'S LAW offers the reader all the old-fashioned virtues: a vivid sense of place, larger than life characters, an intricate and suspenseful plot and a feisty heroine whom we can't help rooting for on every page. Donna Morrissey has written a terrific novel (Margot Livesey)

'Kit's Law has those timeless, mythic qualities you find in Hardy. Donna Morrissey takes the old and makes it new in a miraculous way. As do all good novels.' Eric McCormack, author of the Governor General-nominated First Blast of the Trumpet

An incredible debut novel that reaches the pit of the stomach with an authentic tone and a cast of character that fall into the category of unforgettable (Sunday Business Post)

'....a lively narrative with an unquestionable sense of authenticity...' Toronto Star

'Sleeper hit of the season...a work of strong rhythms and pungent flavours, plus an old-fashioned gothic-melodrama plot...Wally Lamb in a sou'wester...Morrissey gives us a strong setting and a strong novel...' Globe and Mail

Powerful descriptions...vividly imagined (The Independent on Sunday)

About this edition

• Publisher: Sceptre
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0340769122
• ISBN 13: 9780340769126
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 400