Open arms

the long version

In bestselling author Marina Endicott's debut novel, seventeen-year-old Bessie Smith Connolly navigates grief and betrayal as she traverses the country. Bittersweet and deeply affecting, this novel charts Bessie's course as she makes her way through her exploded family and out into the world. Marina Endicott was born in Golden, BC, and grew up with three sisters and a brother, mostly in Nova Scotia and Toronto. She worked as an actor and director before going to England, where she began to write fiction. After London she went west to Saskatoon, where she was dramaturge at the Saskatchewan Playwrights Centre for many years before going farther west to Mayerthorpe, Alberta; she now lives in Edmonton. Publisher's note.