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The Bittlemores
The Bittlemores | Jann Arden
4 posts | 2 read | 2 to read
A heartfelt, comic, and deeply satisfying debut novel from the #1 bestselling author, singer-songwriter, member of Canada's Music Hall of Fame and star of her own hit TV sitcom. A little bit All Creatures Great and Small, a little bit Fargo and all Jann Arden! On mean Harp Bittlemores blighted farm, hidden away in the Backhills, nothing has gone right for a very long time. Crops dont grow, the pigs and chickens stay skinny and the three aged dairy cows, Berle, Crilla and Dally, are so desperate they are plotting an escape. The one thing holding them back is the thought of abandoning young Willa, the single bright point in their life since her older sister, Margaret, ran away. But Willa Bittlemore, just turning 14, is planning her own rebellion. Something doesnt add up in the story shes been told about her missing sister, and she's beginning to question if her horrible parents are even her parents at all. Just as things are really coming to a head, a bright young police officer starts investigating a cold case involving a baby stolen from a little rural hospital 28 years earlier, and Willa and the cows find out exactly how far the Bittlemores will go to protect a festering secret. Written with Janns trademark outrageous humour and full of her down-to-earth wisdom, The Bittlemores is a rural fairytale, a coming-of-age story and a prairie mystery all-in-one, saturated with her observations of the world she grew up in and her deep connection to the animals we exploit. This marvel of a first novel digs into how people come to be so cruel, but it also glories in the miracle of human kindness.
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PurpleyPumpkin
The Bittlemores | Jann Arden
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Written by one of Canada‘s musical icons, I‘m very much looking forward to reading this “rural fairy tale, coming-of-age story.”
#AboutABook #Published2023 #MyNeverendingTBR

Eggs Pretty photograph🩵🤍 4mo
PurpleyPumpkin @Eggs 🥰🙏🩵🤍 (edited) 4mo
34 likes2 comments
review
Kris10H
The Bittlemores | Jann Arden
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Pickpick

I love all things Jann, and this is not an exception. 🥰
The Bittlemores is both tragic, and funny. The characters are multidimensional and relatable - even the cantankerous antagonists, Mr. and Mrs. Bittlemore. Jann said that this story has been inside her for years, and I am so glad she was finally able to finish and share it.

review
Lindy
The Bittlemores | Jann Arden
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Pickpick

Jann Arden‘s bubbling warmth and humour balance the dark, fairytale-type aspects of this novel set on a failing farm in southern Alberta. I love that the cows are given their viewpoints! Animal welfare, motherhood and cruelty versus kindness are themes explored with sharp wit. #CanLit

batsy I had no idea that Jann Arden wrote novels! 11mo
Lindy @batsy This is her first. She says she worked on it for 13 or 14 years. 11mo
batsy @Lindy That's very cool! 11mo
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quote
Lindy
The Bittlemores | Jann Arden
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The cows were endlessly perplexed by how one rickety old man instilled so much fear in them. They outweighed Harp by thousands of pounds. All they had to do was lean hard on his skeletal frame—pin him up against a fence or the stable wall & squeeze the air out of his lungs—& that would be the end of all this nonsense. But they couldn‘t bring themselves to do it. Funny how fear & intimidation work together to form paralyzingly terror.