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Enlarge Cover
list price: $22.95
edition:Paperback
category: Fiction
published: Mar 2014
ISBN:9781771620239
publisher:
Douglas & McIntyre
Description
High Clear Bell of Morning is the gripping tale of a father's love and the extent to which he will go to protect his daughter.
Ruby's life begins to unravel when she hears voices coming from her closet. It isn't long before they are with her all the time. Diagnosed with schizophrenia, her treatment goes awry when she meets a drug dealer, Kenny, in group therapy. He introduces her to cocaine, and then heroin, and within a short space of time she is consumed by her addiction and ready to do almost anything for a drug that makes her feel alive.
Unwilling to let her go, her father, Glen, follows Ruby through the streets, catching glimpses of the horror-filled world in which his daughter now resides. Desperate to comprehend her illness, he finds parallels between Ruby and his job as a marine biologist, particularly in the mysterious death of a young whale, found with a body full of chemicals. In a struggle to get his daughter back, Glen commits an unthinkable act that could cause him to lose everything else that has ever mattered to him.
Elegantly told and affecting, High Clear Bell of Morning illustrates the strain on families facing mental illnesses, and draws attention to the inadequate system that is meant to help. At the same time, it celebrates the natural world and sends a cautionary warning of what we all have to lose. High Clear Bell of Morning lives up to the high praise Eriksson's writing has received from Robert Kroetsch, Nino Ricci and many others.
Editorial Reviews
"In author Anne Eriksson's latest book, High Clear Bell of Morning, her training as a biologist comes into full force...The story maintains a taut urgency throughout as Ruby's father Glen struggles to unpack both the mystery of what happened to the juvenile whale and what is causing his vibrant daughter's life to crumble before his eyes."
— Nanaimo Daily News
"With her keen eye for microscopic detail, Ann Eriksson evokes the awesome beauty and complexity of the Canadian Pacific Northwest landscape, from the perfect symbiosis of flora and fauna to the conflicts, sometimes noble, often tragic, between nature's ecologies and our powerful human desires."
— Ruth Ozeki, author of "All Over Creation"
"Eriksson's story deftly demonstrates how even the most stalwart of families can disintegrate when faced with mental illness, a wily, unknowable opponent that often claims as its victims not only the patient, but their family members as well."
— Winnipeg Free Press
"Finally, there's a novel that explores the unique hell of families trying to help a relative who develops a psychotic disorder."
— Susan Inman, author of "After Her Brain Broke: Helping My Daughter Recover Her Sanity"
"Throughout the novel, Eriksson deftly conveys how a lack of professional support can have tragic consequences for those with serious mental illness and their families...Ultimately, Eriksson's story is one of tragedy and loss. In telling it, she has captured the pain and suffering experienced by those with mental illness and their families. For this unflinching portrayal, I thank her."
— Janet Blue, North Shore Schizophrenia Society (NSSS) peer support worker
"I didn't want to finish High Clear Bell of Morning...Eriksson tells an important story, and she tells it with style, grace and compelling characters and plot."
— The Vancouver Sun
"Few books make me cry. So I was genuinely surprised when I found myself crying when I finished reading High Clear Bell of Morning...[it] is not overwritten; it is to the point. All the details -- emotional, scientific, medical, social -- are presented with a credible, eponymous clarity. But it is Eriksson's ability to draw character with care and compassion that most successfully sustains this novel. That is what made me cry."
— The Coastal Spectator
