Winner of the 2013 Alberta Readers’ Choice Award

Rebee Shore’s life is fragmented. She’s forever on the move, ricocheting around Alberta, guided less than capably by her dysfunctional mother Elizabeth.

The Shore Girl follows Rebee from her toddler to her teen years as she grapples with her mother’s fears and addictions, and her own desire for a normal life. Through a series of narrators—family, friends, teachers, strangers, and Rebee herself—her family’s dark past, and the core of her mother’s despair, are slowly revealed.

Bespeak Audio Editions brings Canadian voices to the world with audiobook editions of some of the country’s greatest works of literature, performed by Canadian actors.

Fran Kimmel was born and raised in Calgary, Alberta. After graduating from the University of Calgary with a degree in Sociology, she worked an eclectic mix of jobs including youth worker, career counsellor, proposal writer, and a ten-year stint as a VP for a career consulting firm. Fran’s stories have appeared in literary journals across Canada and have twice been nominated for the Journey Prize. Fran currently lives in Lacombe with her husband and overly enthusiastic silver lab. The Shore Girl is her first novel.

Fran Kimmel's profile page

Amanda Barker is a proud Maritimer who is well known for her roles in TV and Film and was the 2019 Canadian Comedy Award winner for Best Actress.

Amanda Barker's profile page

“Rebee Shore is a bittersweet creation: heart-rending yet utterly unsentimental, a frail warrior who both distresses and disarms everyone who encounters her—including the reader.” — Annabel Lyon, author of The Golden Mean

“An absorbing and searing portrait of a young girl lost in a fleeing journey of desperation, secrecy, loneliness, wanting, hope and compassion.” — Michael Davie, author of Fishing for Bacon

“In this compassionate novel, Fran Kimmel achieves a delicate creative rendering of loneliness: solitary strangers looking for the promise that you don't have to end like you started. Her characters lodge deep in the reader long after the last page is turned.” — Rosemary Nixon, author of Kalila

“Raw and heartbreaking.... Kimmel's debut will appeal to those who are drawn to dark, gritty family dramas, rife with vulnerable characters in turmoil.” — Quill & Quire

“The Shore Girl's kooky yet realistic characters, true-to-life smells and sounds and scenes conjure up an unidealized world both familiar and alien. Like Harmony's van speeding through Wild Rose Country, it leads the reader into an in-depth examination of human emotions and motives.” — Laurie Glenn Norris, Telegraph-Journal