Carol Shields

Dressing Up for the Carnival is a short story collection published in 2000 by Canadian author Carol Shields, which depicts 12 characters who live their lives through illusions. The Carnival is a metaphor for life, and "dressing up" represents the stigmas each of the characters try to fit into.

Swann: A Mystery is a novel by the late Carol Shields which details the impact of an obscure Canadian poet, Mary Swann, upon four individuals: a feminist literary critic, the poet's biographer, a small-town librarian, and a crusty, brilliant newspaper editor. The book is divided into five sections, the first four each …

Two novels in one, Happenstance tells the story of a marriage from the individual perspectives of a husband and wife at a turning point in their relationshipWhen we meet Brenda Bowman in “The Wife’s Story,” the forty-year-old mother of two is preparing to fly to Philadelphia to attend a craft convention that will …