Brighten the Corner Where You Are

Carol Bruneau

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ISBN: 9781771088831
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Brighten the Corner Where You Are

A Novel Inspired by the Life of Maud Lewis

  Author:   Carol Bruneau    
  Publisher:  Nimbus Publishing Limited

Brighten The Corner Where You Are has been Longlisted for 2022 Dublin Literary Awards, and was the winner of the 2021 Miramichi Reader’s “The Very Best!” Book Awards.

A brilliant novel reimagining the life of internationally renowned folk artist Maud Lewis by an award-winning author.

But I had known since forever that it’s colours that keep the world turning,
that keep a person going.

One glimpse of the tiny painted house that folk art legend Maud Lewis shared with her husband, Everett, in Marshalltown, Nova Scotia, during the mid-twentieth century and the startling contrast between her joyful artwork and her life’s deprivations is evident. One glimpse at her photo and you realize, for all her smile’s shyness, she must’ve been one tough cookie. But, beneath her iconic resilience, who was Maud, really? How did she manage, holed up in that one-room house with no running water, married to a miserly man known for his drinking? Was she happy, or was she miserable? Did painting save or make her Everett’s meal ticket? And then there are the darker secrets that haunt her story: the loss of her parents, her child, her first love.

Against all odds, Maud Lewis rose above these constraints—and this is where you’ll find the Maud of Brighten the Corner Where You Are: speaking her mind from beyond the grave, freed of the stigmas of gender, poverty, and disability that marked her life and shaped her art. Unfettered and feisty as can be, she tells her story her way, illuminating the darkest corners of her life. In possession of a voice all her own, Maud demonstrates the agency that hovers within us all.
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Details and Specs
ISBN associated with this title: 9781771088831
Item NB1544
PublisherNimbus Publishing Limited
PublisherNimbus Publishing Limited
Published on September 9 2020
Language eng
Pages 360
Format Paperback
Dimensions8.5(in) x 5.5(in)
Shipping weight470(g)
Status ACTIVE TITLE
Carol Bruneau
Carol Bruneau is the author of three short story collections and four novels. Her first novel, Purple for Sky, won the 2001 Thomas Head Raddall Atlantic Fiction Award and the Dartmouth Book Award. Her 2007 novel, Glass Voices, was a Globe and Mail Best Book. Her reviews, stories, and essays have appeared nationwide in newspapers, journals, and anthologies, and two of her novels have been published internationally. She lives in Halifax, Nova Scotia, with her husband, their dog, and their cat.

Quick Quotes

"Carol Bruneau brings you to the threshold of life in every one of her stories. She seeks out the breaking point of our hearts and minds; our internal landscape, against the vibrant panorama of the world and our place in it. This is personal. Halifax is her city, good and bad, and we are incredibly lucky to have such a knowledgeable, nuanced, and endearing voice to bring it to us. She is a marvel. You don't get better than this."

—Lesley Crewe, national bestselling author of Recipe for a Good Life

  

"In Threshold, Carol Bruneau makes visible those almost imperceptible moments when what one believes, or what is expected, begins to unravel. Nothing, it turns out, is stable. The logic of time, of how things unfold, collides with the truth—that everything will fall apart. In these keenly observant stories, beauty and fear comingle, but Bruneau's protagonists roll with life's little tsunamis because, well, life simply goes on, no matter what."

—Shani Mootoo, Giller Prize'shortlisted author of Polar Vortex

  

"These are stories of great power and insight. Bruneau illuminates her fictional world with a light so clear and bright that in it we can see into the shadows of our own world, into the usually unuttered spaces between human action and intent, between what we mean to each other and our usually inadequate attempts to articulate that meaning. And the source of that light is Bruneau's powerfully controlled language, never flashy or extravagant, every sentence perfect unto its purpose. Threshold is an admirable and inspiring work."

—Leo McKay Jr., Giller Prize-shortlisted author of Like This and What Comes Echoing Back

  

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