Wrecked Upon This Shore deals with life's most significant tests: loving and dying, broken relationships, the drive to heal and the impulse to be whole. At the novel's centre is Pearl: wild, charismatic, and damaged. We follow her through the eyes of her adult son Stephen, and also from the viewpoint of Mouse, the girl she fell in love with as a teenager. Thirty years old when Pearl is diagnosed with terminal cancer, Stephen is in danger of foundering. Pearl's cancer becomes a crucible with the power not only to destroy but also to re-forge relationships.