The Little Shadows

Reviews / Votes

There's a great deal of skill at work in the telling of this tale - the tender yet unsentimental characterisation, the light touch with which Endicott handles the drama and humiliation of, variously, first love, sibling rebellion and Aurora's marriage of convenience to a much older theatre producer. But this is also a book that moves the reader who gives themselves over to it; you laugh, feel intense embarrassment, say "Oh no!" aloud to the pages. In other words, here art goes hand in hand with artifice, just as those captivating Avery women would have it. * Guardian * The Little Shadows is a novel about art and women, and personal fulfilment and the thrill of performing... She has written an entertaining, moving and original work. * The National Post * The Little Shadows has Endicott's wry sensibility, her pithy lyricism and her skill at pulling the rug out from under the reader's feet. Like the previous novel, this one also concerns itself with big ideas: the point of art, sisterly and familial love and, as the war's shadow extends and darkens, the meaning of life itself. * The Globe and Mail * I couldn't fault the characterisation ... The wedding of the characters to the era makes this book fascinating enough to make me want to go through Marina Endicott's back catalogue. I hope the Endicott home has a broad mantelpiece - if she carries on like this, the awards will keep coming. * The Bookbag * A vivid coming of age tale about the beautiful Avery sisters, thrust on the vaudeville stage after their father's death. Set in early 20th-century Canada, it catapults the reader into the beating heart of the travelling theatrical world - the smell of the greasepaint, heat of the spotlights, and high-wire adrenaline are near-tangible. Thrilling and moving this is a glittering jewel of a novel. * Easy Living *