Unless

Unless is the final novel by the Canadian writer Carol Shields, first published by Fourth Estate in 2002. It is semi-autobiographical, and it was the last book of her career: she died shortly after its publication in 2003.

Retta Winters is a writer, a translator and the mother of three daughters, and her eldest, Norah, has dropped out of university and taken up a position on a Toronto street corner with a sign offering goodness. Retta spends the novel trying to work out what has happened while continuing her work, her marriage and her friendships, and the book is as much about the ordinary maintenance of a life as about the crisis, keeping its attention on Retta rather than on her daughter's reasons.

Shields writes in a plain, exact first person, and the novel was nominated for major prizes and widely praised. It completed her career, it is regarded as one of her central works, and its title is the word her narrator keeps returning to when she describes what happened.