The Stone Angel

Description

Above the town, on the hill brow, the stone angel used to stand. I wonder if she stands there yet... Hagar Shipley - an irascible, independent nonagenarian - has lived a quiet life full of rage. As she approaches her death, she retreats from the squabbling of her son and his wife to reflect on her past - her ill-advised marriage, her two sons, the harshness of farm life on the prairie, her own failures and the betrayals and failures of others.

Margaret Laurence (1926-1987) grew up in the small prairie town of Neepawa, Manitoba, Canada. Recognised as one of the greatest Canadian writers, her masterwork is the Manawaka sequence: five novels of which THE STONE ANGEL is the first.

The Apollo choices have been masterful. The list is thought-provoking, eye-opening, inspired and inspiring * The Big Issue * Laurence gives us a portrait of a remarkable character and at the same time the picture of old age itself, with the pain, the weariness, the terror, the impotent angers and physical mishaps, the realization that others are waiting and wishing for an end... [She] strikes, with an equally sure touch, the peculiar note and the universal' -- Honor Tracy, The New Republic Wise, moving and surprising, Laurence's novel is a rarity * The Times * It was a delight to experience this classic of Canadian literature * Bookish Beck *