FFWD Weekly
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Books by Kari Watson Purple for Sky by Carol Bruneau Cormorant Books, 407 pp It is quite exciting when you pick up a book that, despite it’s seemingly ordinary subject matter, reveals itself to be a compelling and extraordinary story. Such is the case with Carol Bruneau’s first novel, Purple for Sky, which portrays the lives of three generations of women in small-town Nova Scotia. The characters are average people who perform ordinary tasks and live common lives. It is the descriptive narrative used in the telling of their lives which makes Purple for Sky so interesting. The story begins with Lindy and her elderly aunt Ruby, who through various circumstances find themselves roommates and co-owners of the small shop attached to their house. The narration skips between Lindy and Ruby, telling both sides of the story, and once you become comfortable with these two, the narrative shifts once more, this time to a journal written long ago and given voice by Ruby’s mother Euphemia. It is in this journal that Euphemia reveals a bittersweet secret – the catalyst that instigates the upheaval of both Lindy and Ruby’s sedentary, stagnant lives. Bruneau’s use of shifting narrative is well used throughout the novel. She fleshes out the lives of these women from their own viewpoint as well as of those around them, confronting issues of aging, loneliness and changing times with authenticity. It is easy to become instantly familiar with the characters and to feel their emotions throughout the book. Bruneau’s skill at keeping the reader’s attention with rich and descriptive narrative results in an extremely well-written first novel.

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