Hat Girl
- Publisher
- Signature Editions
- Initial publish date
- Nov 2013
- Category
- Literary
-
eBook
- ISBN
- 9781927426210
- Publish Date
- Nov 2013
- List Price
- $9.99
-
Paperback / softback
- ISBN
- 9781927426203
- Publish Date
- Sep 2013
- List Price
- $17.95
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Description
Pertice McIlveen, a young Ontario woman who loves Hemingway and hates hats, receives a mysterious key in the mail. Accompanied by her best friend Es, she travels to Gannet Island off the coast of New Brunswick to find the door it fits into. There she discovers a charming cottage by the sea has been willed to her by a secret benefactor identified only as PM, on the condition she wears the hats that come with it. She accepts the challenge, leaving behind her life in Toronto and moving into Honeysuckle Cottage. As she seeks to solve the mystery of PM, Pertice is gradually changed by the hats she wears and the islanders she meets. With the help of Charlotte, the proprietor of the local bed and breakfast, her artist husband Will, and two men caught between land and sea, Pertice discovers a new kind of grace under pressure.
About the author
Wanda Campbell was born and grew up in Andhra Pradesh, South India. She came to Canada at the age of ten, and is a passionate Canadian. She teaches Creative Writing and Women's Literature at Acadia University in Wolfville, Nova Scotia in view of the highest tides in the world. She has published a novel Hat Girl (2013) and four collections of poetry, Daedalus Had a Daughter (2011), Grace (2009), Looking for Lucy (2008), and Sky Fishing (1997), as well as the poetry chapbook Haw[Thorn] (2003). Her poems and stories have appeared in anthologies such as Landmarks: An Anthology of New Atlantic Canadian Poetry of the Land and Body Language, and in journals across Canada including Antigonish Review, Between the Lines, Contemporary Verse II, Dalhousie Review, Descant, Driftwood, existere, Fiddlehead, Gaspereau Review, Grain, Harpweaver, New Quarterly, Northern Cardinal Review, Queen's Quarterly, Room, Vallum, Wascana Review, and Windsor Review.
Awards
- Winner, H.R. Percy Prize
Excerpt: Hat Girl (by (author) Wanda Campbell)
"I just got a key in the mail."
"A key to what?"
"I don't know. Just a key."
"What do you mean, just a key?"
I looked at the key intently, turning it over and over as if there might be some inscription or clue.
"Maybe you won a new car," Es said, laughing.
"It doesn't look like a car key. It looks like a key to a door."
Es held out her hand for the key. As usual, her fingernails had spectacular designs on them, not the press-on kind you got out of a package, but designs she paints herself with different colours of polish. Lately, she has been working on Van Gogh motifs--sunflowers, swirling stars, black crows descending on golden wheat. When I complimented her once, she said, "Shhh, they'll be wanting to hang them in the ROM!"
"Who's it from?" Es asked, looking closely at the key.
"It doesn't say, and there's no message." Es began to hum the theme from the Twilight Zone. I picked up the empty envelope and read the return address out loud. No person. Just a place. "Honeysuckle Cottage, North Head, Gannet Island."
"Well, that doesn't sound too scary," Es said. "Where's Gannet Island?"
"I have no idea."
Editorial Reviews
Author Wanda Campbell's character development is extraordinary. A Nova Scotia creative writing professor and poet, she captures the spiritedness of those who live their lives harmoniously with the ebb and flow of the tides, as only a Maritimer can. Even in its quietest moments, such as a walk to the island's lighthouse or afternoon tea at the local bed and breakfast, Hat Girl resonates because the narrative is so relatable.
Winnipeg Free Press
