The Shell Collector: Stories - Softcover

Doerr, Anthony

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0142002968 ISBN 13: 9780142002964

Publisher: Penguin Group USA, 2003

Synopsis

A debut collection of evocative short fiction explores the complex mysteries of the human condition--grief, transformation, fractured relationships, and mending hearts--in a volume that includes the title story, "The Hunter's Wife," and "For a Long Time This Was Griselda's Story," about two Idaho sisters struggling to come to terms with their diverse paths in life. Reprint.

About this title

Review:

Tom Franklinauthor of "Poachers"Anthony Doerr's "The Shell Collector" is, quite simply, amazing. Not since Rick Bass's "The Watch" has a first collection roamed so far in both language and landscape, presenting the natural and humanmade worlds with equal beauty and awe. These daring stories just about define longing, but their people never give up.

From the Back Cover:

'His fingers dug the shell up, he felt the sleek egg of its body, the toothy gap of its aperture. It was the most elegant thing he'd ever held. "That's a mouse cowry," the doctor said. "A lovely find. It has brown spots, and darker stripes at its base, like tiger stripes. You can't see it, can you?" But he could. He'd never seen anything so clearly in his life.’

In this assured, exquisite debut, Anthony Doerr takes readers from the African coast to the suburbs of Ohio, from sideshow pageantry to harsh wilderness survival, conjuring nature in both its beautiful abundance and its crushing power. The blind hero of the title story spends his days roaming the beaches of Kenya, his fingers ploughing through sandy granules of grace and intrigue, his German shepherd at his side. And then there are whale-watchers and fishermen, hunters and mystics, living lives uncompleted or undone, caught, memorably, as they turn toward the reader.

A natural storyteller, Doerr explores the human dilemma in all its manifestations: longing, grief, indecision, heartbreak and slow, slow recuperation. Shimmering with elegance and invention, The Shell Collector is an enchanting and imaginative book by a young writer just setting off on what will surely be a hugely compelling literary odyssey.

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin Group USA
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0142002968
• ISBN 13: 9780142002964
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• Number of pages: 224