Five babies are blessed at birth by their grandmother and now, as she dies, she wants to release them of the blessing for each has rather back-fired on them. It’s a wacky scenario for a novel which is actually all about family, sibling rivalry and life. In their adult lives the kids have scattered and it’s a bit complicated getting them together in a hospital room in time to break the spell. All five are very different and present an interesting mirror on aspects of personality, often turning positive traits into the negative. A fascinating book.
The Weirds have always been a little off, but not one of them ever suspected that they'd been cursed by their grandmother.At the moment of the births of her five grandchildren Annie Weird gave each one a special power. Richard, the oldest, always keeps safe; Abba always has hope; Lucy is never lost and Kent can beat anyone in a fight. As for Angie, she always forgives, instantly. But over the years these so-called blessings ended up ruining their lives.Now Annie is dying and she has one last task for Angie: gather her far-flung brothers and sisters and assemble them in her grandmother's hospital room so that at the moment of her death, she can lift these blessings-turned-curses. And Angie has justtwo weeks to do it.What follows is a quest like no other, tearing up highways and racing through airports, from a sketchy Winnipeg nursing home to the small island kingdom of Upliffta, from the family's crumbling ancestral Toronto mansion to a motel called Love. And there is also the search for the answer to the greatest family mystery of all: what really happened to their father, whose maroon Maserati was fished out of a lake so many years ago?
