Donna Morrissey

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.

A Memoir of a Newfoundland Childhood and the Raucous, Terrible, Amazing Journey to Becoming a Novelist

Pluck

Kit's Law

The Fortunate Brother

Newfoundland fisherman Sylvanus Now determinedly works to earn enough money to afford a suit that will help him to court the beautiful Adelaide, whose family compromises her dream of escaping her stultifying port community. Original.

A Novel

Sylvanus Now

The Fortunate Brother is a dark, atmospheric and compelling novel about the aftermath of a murder in a claustrophobic rural community in Newfoundland. When a body is found in the lake suspicion falls on the troubled Now family. As the mystery unfolds other, far deeper, secrets are revealed. Compassionate and wise, beautiful and brutal, The Fortunate Brother is the story of a family and a community in turmoil and confirms Donna Morrissey's place as one of Canada's foremost storytellers.

The fortunate brother

A woman suffering from a series of heart attacks allows her younger self to guide her through the memories and delusions of her past.

The deception of Livvy Higgs

“[An] almost mythical story of fractured families, wars, and homecomings” from the international bestselling author of The Fortunate Brother (Quill & Quire). With Kit’s Law, Donna Morrissey established herself as a gifted storyteller. Her chronicle of life in a remote Newfoundland outport was acclaimed by critics and embraced by readers worldwide. Downhill Chance is a captivating successor to Morrissey’s first novel. Set in a pair of isolated fishing communities in Newfoundland during and after the Second World War, this is the story of two families joined by friendship but torn apart by fear and sorrows. Prude Osmond reads her tea leaves and predicts dark days ahead. Meanwhile, an hour’s boat ride away, Job Gale leaves his wife and two young daughters behind to fight in the war, a cause neither they nor their neighbors understand. The war and the dark secrets it holds cascade over the Gale family, afflicting the sensitive yet resourceful Clair, an unforgettable heroine. Forced to restart her life in another place, she must forsake the family she loves and her community. Morrissey blends drama, gritty realism, and a flair for the comic in this unique novel. At its core is the unravelling of secrets—and the redemption that truth ultimately brings. “Hardy and Dickens are the probable inspirations for this sprawling, old-fashioned tale of two maritime Newfoundland families . . . the narrative moves like a house afire, and its racy energy keeps our attention riveted.” —Kirkus Reviews “Achingly beautiful . . . A major novel by a remarkable writer.” —Booklist (starred review)

Downhill Chance

Sylvanus Now, a young and charming fisherman, wants to marry the beautiful Adelaide, but she instead dreams of escaping the stultifying fishing community in which they live.

A brother and sister leave Newfoundland to work in the oil fields of Alberta to provide financial assistance to their ailing father and other family members.

What They Wanted

Living a reclusive and isolated existence with her mentally retarded mother and her grandmother in a ramshackle cottage on Newfoundland's outer banks, teenager Kit Pitman finds her life turned upside down by the death of her grandmother, leaving Kit and her childlike mother vulnerable to the harsh realities of life. A first novel. Reader's Guide. Original.

Julia is a six-year old fairy who is scared of making mistakes "because they make her feel bad inside." She thought that everyone wanted her to be good and perfect. Her mother shows her that making mistakes are just a part of growing up and learning. She explains that everyone, even mommy and daddy, learn from them. Mom teaches her that the best thing to do when you make a mistake is to apologize and try to make up for it somehow. Then remember what you learned so that you don't keep making those same mistakes. "The more you practice walking up to that mistake and shaking its hand, the better you feel afterwards. It's not scary at all. It is sad when you run away and hide from them. Those poor, beautiful mistakes just want to be loved for guiding you." This amusing story takes place in a fairy house with illustrations that include scampering woodland creatures and an abundance of love and magical fairy dust.

What Beautiful Mistake Did You Make Today?

Morrissey’s acclaimed, bestselling debut. “A Dickensian brawl of a novel . . . never a dull moment! The reader is willingly swept along in the tide.” —St. Louis Post-Dispatch 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 disabled 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. “An extraordinary trinity of women.” —Thomas Keneally, #1 bestselling author of Schindler’s List “A stunning debut.” —The Telegraph “Impossible to put down.” —The Sunday Business Post “Speaks directly to the heart.” —The Globe and Mail

Donna Morrissey

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