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Home books Fiction and Literature

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The Little Shadows

by Marina Endicott

Doubleday Canada | September 27, 2011 | Hardcover

Based on 30 ratings | Rate this

Here is the eagerly anticipated new novel from a brilliant writer whose last book, Good to a Fault, was shortlisted for the prestigious Giller Prize and won the Commonwealth Prize for Canada and the Caribbean.

The Little Shadows revolves around three sisters in the world of vaudeville before and during the First World War. We follow the lives of all three in turn: Aurora, the eldest and most beautiful, who is sixteen when the book opens; thoughtful Clover, a year younger; and the youngest sister, joyous headstrong sprite Bella, who is thirteen. The girls, overseen by their fond but barely coping Mama, are forced to make their living as a singing act after the untimely death of their father. They begin with little besides youth and hope, but Marina Endicott's genius is to show how the three girls slowly and steadily evolve into true artists even as they navigate their way to adulthood among a cast of extraordinary characters - some of them charming charlatans, some of them unpredictable eccentrics, and some of them just ordinary-seeming humans with magical gifts.

Using her gorgeous prose and extraordinary insight, Endicott lures us onto the brightly lit stage and then into the little shadows that lurk behind the curtain, and reveals how the art of vaudeville -- in all its variety, madness, melodrama, hilarity and sorrow -- echoes the art of life itself.

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All reviews of The Little Shadows

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Was this review helpful?
1
0

Super read!
by Booktasia
17 months ago

Three sisters are forced into vaudeville during the first world war following the death of their father. As they learn about the highs and lows of acting and what happens behind the scenes. Life isn't always easy.
Was this review helpful?
5
1

An amazing book.
by DrKitKat
18 months ago

You will be completely immersed in a wonderful experience that is both literary and theatrical. This is a book of vaudeville in every possible sense. The characters are involved in western Canada's Vaudeville scene (meticulously researched) from 1912-1917. But the language and structure of the book are also absolutely "vaudeville." You feel like you are there. The characters are colourful and moving, and Endicott sure can write.