Marina Endicott was well known in theatre circles — as a playwright, actor and director — before she turned her hand to fiction. Now, with two award-winning novels to her credit, she's become known in CanLit circles, too.
Marina's first novel, Open Arms, was shortlisted for the 2001 Amazon/Books in Canada First Novel Award and was adapted for CBC Radio's Between the Covers.
Her second book, Good to a Fault (2008), won the regional Commonwealth Writers' Prize (Canada and the Caribbean), made the shortlist of the Scotiabank Giller Prize and was long-listed for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. It was also one of the Globe and Mail's Top 100 Books for 2008.
Marina's short fiction has been featured in anthologies and shortlisted for both the Journey Prize and the Western Magazine Awards.
Born in Golden, British Columbia, Marina grew up in Halifax and Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, and Toronto. She moved to London, England, to pursue her career in theatre, but returned to Canada in 1984 and settled in Saskatoon. For many years, she served as dramaturge of the Saskatchewan Playwrights Centre and associate dramaturge at the Banff's Centre's Playwrights Colony.
Marina now lives in Edmonton, and teaches creative writing at the University of Alberta.
Marina Endicott's compelling novel Good to a Fault begins with a bang — two cars collide at an intersection. As the story unfolds, the lives of all those involved are unalterably jolted, too.
The driver at fault is 43-year-old Clara Purdy, who works at a Saskatoon insurance company. Affluent but unfulfilled, she has spent years nursing her dying parents and now finds herself alone.
The other car is home to an impoverished family on its way to Fort McMurray, Alberta, in search of a new start. The mother, Lorraine, the only one who's injured in the accident, ends up in the hospital.
Feeling that she wants to do what's right — and also that she's to blame for the situation — Clara chooses to help not only Lorraine but also her sullen husband, their three children and the grumpy grandmother, Mrs. Pell. Clara's decision brings chaos and complications into her life, along with powerful new emotions, both rewarding and painful.
Told from the viewpoint of a number of characters, Good to a Fault is a compassionate, insightful exploration of the choices people make and the complex motives that drive them.
A story of two classes colliding, Good to a Fault is both an exploration of faith and a meditation on the meaning of home. The author handles these serious themes with a light touch, and her tale of a Canadian Good Samaritan is full of surprises and humour.