The Stone Angel

By: Margaret Laurence

Narrated by: Maggie Huculak

In her best-loved novel, The Stone Angel, Margaret Laurence introduces Hagar Shipley, one of the most memorable characters in Canadian fiction. Stubborn, querulous, self-reliant – and, at ninety, with her life nearly behind her – Hagar Shipley makes a bold last step towards freedom and independence.

As her story unfolds, we are drawn into her past. We meet Hagar as a young girl growing up in a black prairie town; as the wife of a virile but unsuccessful farmer with whom her marriage was stormy; as a mother who dominates her younger son; and, finally, as an old woman isolated by an uncompromising pride and by the stern virtues she has inherited from her pioneer ancestors.

Vivid, evocative, moving, The Stone Angel celebrates the triumph of the spirit, and reveals Margaret Laurence at the height of her powers as a writer of extraordinary craft and profound insight into the workings of the human heart.

Critic reviews

“One of the most convincing—and the most touching—portraits of an unregenerate sinner.”
—Time

Pride and Punishment

The narrator was excellent. She really caught Hagar's bitter character perfectly.
This is a difficult story, but it has a lot to teach us about the realities of hard lives. It made me very sad, but I am glad I stuck with it.