Brighten the Corner Where You Are
A Novel Inspired by the Life of Maud Lewis
by Carol Bruneau
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Pub Date Sep 09 2020 | Archive Date Dec 25 2020
Nimbus Publishing | Vagrant Press
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Description
Brighten The Corner Where You Are has been Longlisted for 2022 Dublin Literary Awards, and was the winner of the 2021 Miramichi Reader's "The Very Best!" Book Awards.
A brilliant novel reimagining the life of internationally renowned folk artist Maud Lewis by an award-winning author.
But I had known since forever that it's colours that keep the world turning,
that keep a person going.
One glimpse of the tiny painted house that folk art legend Maud Lewis shared with her husband, Everett, in Marshalltown, Nova Scotia, during the mid-twentieth century and the startling contrast between her joyful artwork and her life's deprivations is evident. One glimpse at her photo and you realize, for all her smile's shyness, she must've been one tough cookie. But, beneath her iconic resilience, who was Maud, really? How did she manage, holed up in that one-room house with no running water, married to a miserly man known for his drinking? Was she happy, or was she miserable? Did painting save or make her Everett's meal ticket? And then there are the darker secrets that haunt her story: the loss of her parents, her child, her first love.
Against all odds, Maud Lewis rose above these constraints—and this is where you'll find the Maud of Brighten the Corner Where You Are: speaking her mind from beyond the grave, freed of the stigmas of gender, poverty, and disability that marked her life and shaped her art. Unfettered and feisty as can be, she tells her story her way, illuminating the darkest corners of her life. In possession of a voice all her own, Maud demonstrates the agency that hovers within us all.
Advance Praise
CBC: Books to check out in Fall 2020
Toronto Star: New and Noteworthy (Oct 1/20)
49th Shelf: Fiction We Can’t Wait to Read This Fall (2020
“In Bruneau’s talented hands, the story becomes a fully realized narrative that doesn’t require knowledge of Lewis’s work. In the manner of Alice Sebold’s 2002 bestseller, The Lovely Bones, Bruneau has created a first-person structure in which her protagonist reflects on her past and on events in the world after her death…. The approach also allows the character to address her posthumous fame and misconceptions about her marriage. Lewis is presented as a woman of strength and sass, a chain-smoker who detested being seen as a victim (even when she clearly was), and who desired romance and simple pleasures. But perhaps most importantly, it is clear that Bruneau respects Lewis as an artist and a human. Brighten the Corner Where You Are is a welcome addition to the Lewis legacy.”
–Quill & Quire, starred review
“In Brighten the Corner, Maud gains a fulsomeness. She is not simply a vision of misery and a subject of pity nor a model of indefatigable spirit and artistic joy, but a cauldron of divergent emotions and thoughts…. This is a fine book bringing credible depth to an artist who, for all that she contributed to Nova Scotia lore, is largely unknown.”
–The Miramichi Reader
“In Brighten the Corner Where You Are, Carol Bruneau imagines Maud Lewis narrating her own story, and in so doing she has created a literary response to Maud’s painted legacy that adds much to our understanding of this much misunderstood artist…. [An] incisive, generous, and powerful reading of Maud Lewis’s painted world.”
–Ray Cronin, Billie magazine (September 2020)
Marketing Plan
National media mailing
National advertising
Books for Everybody holiday catalogue
Atlantic Booksellers holiday catalogue
Festival circuit
National media mailing
National advertising
Books for Everybody holiday catalogue
Atlantic Booksellers holiday catalogue
Festival circuit
Available Editions
| EDITION | Other Format |
| ISBN | 9781771088831 |
| PRICE | CA$24.95 (CAD) |
| PAGES | 352 |
Available on NetGalley
Featured Reviews
Reta S, Reviewer
Brighten the Corner Where You Are by Carol Bruneau
Thanks to NetGalley and Nimbus Publishing, Vagrant Press for a digital ARC for an honest review.
This portrayal of Maud and her husband from her perspective was wonderful. It is amazing that someone living with such physical disabilities and in such poverty was able to produce such cheerful Folk art. I really enjoyed this well-researched novel.
#NetGalley #BrightentheCornerWhereYouAre
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