Clara Purdy crashes into a car carrying the Gage family, who had been travelling to a new life in Fort McMurray. When bruises on the mother, Lorraine, prove to be late-stage cancer rather than remnants of the accident, Clara moves everyone into her own house, and as Lorraine walks the borders of death, Clara expands into life, finding purpose, energy and unexpected love. But the burden is not Clara's alone: Lorraine's children must cope with divided loyalties and Lorraine must live with her growing, unpayable debt to Clara - and the feeling that Clara has taken her place. Canada Reads 2010. Winner of the Commonwealth Writers' Prize Best Book Award, Canada and the Caribbean. 2008.
From the community