In this powerful novel from one of the most gifted storytellers to emerge from Canada since Carol Shields, we find “all the old-fashioned virtues: a vivid sense of place, an intricate and suspenseful plot, and a feisty heroine whom we can’t help rooting for on every page” (Margot Livesey). Kit Pitman is fourteen and lives in a ramshackle cottage on the outer banks of Newfoundland, where isolation is all she knows. The only visitors are fogbound fishermen and an occasional young man brought ashore to keep the bloodlines clean. But Kit’s isolation is compounded by the mystery that surrounds her family and her illegitimate birth. Her mother, Josie, is mentally retarded and often runs wild among the clapboard houses that dot the shore. Meanwhile, her grandmother Lizzie staunchly guards them both from the disapproving glances pious townsfolk cast their way. But when Lizzie dies suddenly, Kit and her childlike mother are left vulnerable to life’s harsh realities and to unexpected dangers that repeatedly threaten to break them apart. A wrenching story ensues, as Morrissey depicts with exceptional grace the way the lines between mother and daughter in this unlikely relationship, although blurred, are deeply felt. Kit's Law is a novel of extraordinary, almost mythical power and marks the debut of an enormous new talent. Set in a remote Newfoundland village in the 1950s, this beautiful first novel balances raunchy folk humor, riveting suspense, and family tragedy with a young girl's profound first love. Fourteen-year-old Kit Pitman lives in a weather-beaten coastal cottage with her mentally disabled mother, Josie, and her fiercely protective grandmother, Nan--a "shadow big enough to blot out all of Haire's Hollow." Both childlike and sexually promiscuous, Josie scandalizes the villagers, but Nan holds the family together until her abrupt death. When a group of locals tries to place Kit into foster care, she fights to keep her beloved gully-side home; with few friends, she cherishes quiet and isolation. Household help comes from her ailing aunt and from the reverend's son, Sid, with whom Kit falls deeply in love as the plot accelerates to a thriller's pace. Kit and Sid's ultimately doomed affair is unraveled first by a violent act of self-defense and then by impossible family secrets. With a poet's attention to sound, Morrissey combines wonderful, rich characters and compelling family intrigue with a powerful, almost meditative sense of place. Startling, vivid, and expertly crafted, this novel introduces an exciting writer whose career needs to be followed closely. Gillian Engberg Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved "Kit is a heroine whom we immediately warm to . . . KIT'S LAW is a charmer." (Starred review) Kirkus Reviews "Startling, vivid, and expertly crafted, this novel introduces an exciting writer whose career needs to be followed closely." Booklist, ALA, Starred Review "A Dickensian brawl of a novel . . . never a dull moment! The reader is willingly swept along in the tide." St. Louis Post-Dispatch NATIONAL BESTSELLER IN CANADA "A STUNNING DEBUT." Telegraph (London) "IMPOSSIBLE TO PUT DOWN." Sunday Business Post (Ireland) "SPEAKS DIRECTLY TO THE HEART." Toronto Globe and Mail In this powerful novel from one of the most gifted storytellers to emerge from Canada since Carol Shields, we find "all the old-fashioned virtues: a vivid sense of place, larger than life characters, an intricate and suspenseful plot, and a feisty heroine whom we can't help rooting for on every page" (Margot Livesey). Kit Pitman is fourteen and lives in a ramshackle cottage on the outer banks of Newfoundland, where isolation is all she knows. The only visitors are fogbound fishermen and the occasional young man brought ashore to keep the bloodlines clean. But Kit's isolation is compounded by the mystery that surrounds her family and her illegitimate birth. Her mother, Josie, is mentally challenged and often runs wild among the clapboard houses that dot the shore. Meanwhile, her grandmother Lizzy staunchly guards them both from the disapproving glances that pious towns-folk cast their way. But when Lizzy dies suddenly, Kit and her childlike mother are left vulnerable to life's harsh realities and unexpected dangers that threaten to break them in two. A wrenching story ensues, as Donna Morrissey depicts with exceptional grace the way the lines between mother and daughter in this unlikely relationship, although blurred, are no less felt. Kit's Law is a novel of extraordinary, almost mythical power and marks the debut of an enormous new talent. "Entrancing affecting haunting Donna Morrissey has much in common with Thomas Hardy." --Sunday Tribune (Dublin) A native of Newfoundland, DONNA MORRISSEY left The Beaches, a small outpost on the west coast, when she was sixteen. She studied at Memorial University in St. John's and now lives in Halifax. She has adapted two of her short stories into award-winnin