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Learn moreNATIONAL BESTSELLER
FINALIST FOR THE 2022 ATLANTIC BOOK AWARDS’ EVELYN RICHARDSON NON-FICTION AWARD
A deeply personal account of love's restorative ability as it leads renowned novelist Donna Morrissey through mental illness, family death, and despair to becoming a writer--told with charm and inimitable humour.
When Donna Morrissey left the only home she had ever known, an isolated Newfoundland settlement, at age 16, she was ready for adventure. She had grown up without television or telephones but had absorbed the tragic stories and comic yarns of her close-knit family and community. The death of her infant brother marked the family, and years later, Morrissey suffers devastating guilt about the accidental death of her teenage brother, whom she'd enticed to join her in the oilfields. Her misery was compounded by her own misdiagnosis of a terminal illness, all of which contributed to crippling anxiety and an actual diagnosis of PTSD. Many of those events and themes would eventually be transformed and recast as fictional gold in Morrissey's novels.
In another writer's hands, Morrissey's account of her personal story could easily be a tragedy. Instead, she combines darkness and light, levity and sadness into her tale, as her indomitable spirit and humour sustain her. Morrissey's path takes her from the drudgery of being a grocery clerk (who occasionally enlivens her shift with recreational drugs) to western oilfields, to marriage and divorce and working in a fish-processing plant to support herself and her two young children. Throughout her struggles, she nourishes a love of learning and language.
Morrissey layers her account of her life with stories of those who came before her, a breed rarely seen in the modern world. It centers around iron-willed women: mothers and daughters, wives, sisters, teachers and mentors who find the support, the wind for their wings, outside the bounds given to them by nature. And it is a mysterious older woman she meets in Halifax who eventually unleashes the writer that Morrissey is destined to become.
An inspiring and insightful memoir, Pluck illustrates that even when you find yourself unravelling, you can find a way to spin the yarns that will save you--and delight readers everywhere.
DONNA MORRISSEY is the author of the nationally bestselling memoir Pluck, which was a finalist for the Atlantic Book Awards' Non-Fiction Award, and of six acclaimed and bestselling novels. Among her honours are the Thomas Raddall Atlantic Fiction Award and the Arthur Ellis Award for Best Crime Fiction for The Fortunate Brother; Sylvanus Now was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers' Prize; and The Deception of Livvy Higgs was a One Read pick for Nova Scotia in 2017. Her fiction has also won awards in the US and the UK, and has been translated into several languages. Born and raised in Newfoundland, she lives in Halifax.
DONNA MORRISSEY is the author of the nationally bestselling memoir Pluck, which was a finalist for the Atlantic Book Awards' Non-Fiction Award, and of six acclaimed and bestselling novels. Among her honours are the Thomas Raddall Atlantic Fiction Award and the Arthur Ellis Award for Best Crime Fiction for The Fortunate Brother; Sylvanus Now was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers' Prize; and The Deception of Livvy Higgs was a One Read pick for Nova Scotia in 2017. Her fiction has also won awards in the US and the UK, and has been translated into several languages. Born and raised in Newfoundland, she lives in Halifax.
Reviews
NATIONAL BESTSELLERFINALIST FOR THE 2022 ATLANTIC BOOK AWARDS’ EVELYN RICHARDSON NON-FICTION AWARD
One of:
Winnipeg Free Press's Best Books of 2021
CBC's "57 works of Canadian nonfiction coming out in fall 2021 [that] we can't wait to read"
“Remarkable. . . . [Pluck] is that rare book that pulls the curtain back on working life, illuminating both its stresses and sorrows and its unexpected joys.”
—The Globe and Mail
“I have heard many tell and sing about the challenges and blessings of the hard and happy times in outport Newfoundland, but never have I felt such a connection to it in story or song as in Donna Morrissey’s Pluck. I feel like I have walked the hills with her in an extraordinary childhood filled with death and dancing, where nothing was so fearsome or fascinating as ‘away’. This is a song of a story and I would love an encore.”
—Alan Doyle, musician, actor and bestselling author of All Together Now
“The ups and downs of Donna Morrissey’s life would be enough to give anyone the bends. Pluck is a terrific read, a tale that will make you laugh and cry. Take the plunge.”
—Mark Critch, bestselling author of An Embarrassment of Critch’s andSon of a Critch
"In Pluck, Donna Morrissey turns her award-winning storytelling skills to a compelling, compassionate and often humorous account of growing up with her big, turbulent, loving family in outport Newfoundland. This deeply moving memoir is the story of a writer finding her way and her voice. But more so, it's a powerful reflection on the experiences of tragedy and redemption, and the inextricably linked states of loss and love."
—Pauline Dakin, bestselling author of Run, Hide, Repeat
"Every word of Donna Morrisey’s memoir, Pluck, is a gem. . . . From its first page you become enamoured of the people who raised, supported, pushed, cajoled or loved this author into becoming one of Canada’s best literary voices. . . . If turning the pain of life into beauty is an artist’s purpose, then this book is a masterpiece. . . . It is a memoir that reads like a novel, with a twist that will leave you gasping. . . . Unequivocally, a must-read, masterful, page-turner of a tale."
—The Miramichi Reader
"Imagination, fortitude, pluck and metamorphosis are some of the themes of this . . . engaging account of the author’s ties to Newfoundland and her family in the context of her development as a writer."
—The Winnipeg Free Press
“Donna Morrissey [has] known and lived tragedies many of us only hear about. . . . [yet[ she writes about all of these things with such beauty. . . . There’s darkness, and she doesn’t shy away from it. It’s real. It’s raw. And it’s beautiful.
—Edwards Book Club Reviews
“Pluck is happy and sad and all that comes in between. But above all else, it is a great read.”
—Waterloo Region Record Expand reviews
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