Shell Collector: Stories FROM OUR EDITORS
The Barnes & Noble Review from Discover Great New Writers
In this enchanting and self-assured collection of stories, Anthony Doerr explores the human condition in its most elemental manifestation: man's relationship to the natural world. Doerr's gift is the conjuring of nature in all its elegant fertility, variety, and indomitable power. Some of his characters struggle with enormous hardship and grief; some undergo unwanted transformations; and some bravely face the changes that must be made in order to heal broken spirits -- but all are united by their final deference to the mysteries and unlimited potential of the world they inhabit.
In the title story, a blind man obsessed with the tactile beauty of seashells is torn from the seclusion of his seaside hut on the Indian Ocean and thrust into the media spotlight when an enigmatic guest is cured of a fatal disease by the sting of a deadly cone shell. "The Hunter's Wife" spins the tale of a sportsman whose complacency is challenged when his unusual wife forces him to experience the departing souls of wild animals. "Mkondo" is a compelling exploration of the nature of desire, in which a drab Ohio museum curator jumps bravely into a new world where everything he considered valuable is now rendered useless. And two sisters grapple with the repercussions of the different paths they have chosen in "For a Long Time This Was Griselda's Story."
In this truly profound fiction debut, Anthony Doerr brings his characters gracefully to life in richly evocative settings; here, each in their own way seeks the rapture of renewal and gains the ability to see the world clearly for the very first time.
(Winter 2002 Selection)
ANNOTATION
First-place winner, 2002 Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Award, Fiction.
FROM THE PUBLISHER
In this astonishingly assured, exquisitely crafted debut collection, Anthony Doerr takes readers from the African coast to the suburbs of Ohio, from sideshow pageantry to harsh wilderness survival, charting a vast and varied emotional landscape. Like the best storytellers, Doerr explores the human condition in all its manifestations: metamorphosis, grief, fractured relationships, and slowly mending hearts. Most dazzling is Doerr's gift for conjuring nature in both its beautiful abundance and crushing power. Some of his characters contend with tremendous hardship; some discover unique gifts; all arc united by their ultimate deference to the mysteries of their respective landscapes.
In "The Hunter's Wife," a hunter's profession is challenged when he learns that his wife can communicate with animal spirits. "For a Long Time This Was Griselda's Story" features two sisters in Idaho struggling to come to terms with the very different paths they have chosen, one traveling the globe with a sideshow and one remaining with her mother in their hometown. In "July 4th," a group of wealthy Americans enters a bet with a gang of British sportsmen: the first side to land the largest freshwater fish on each of the continents wins. The title story describes a blind marine biologist who isolates himself in a thatch-roofed kibanda in Kenya, only to be thrust into the spotlight when he accidentally discovers the cure for a fatal disease. Like all of Doerr's stories, it shimmers with beautiful language and transports readers to a perfectly realized, magical world of his own creation. The Shell Collector is an enchanting and imaginative debut by a young writer embarking on an important literary career.
SYNOPSIS
From the African coast to the suburbs of Ohio, from sideshow pageantry
to harsh wilderness survival, Doerr's stories explore the human
condition in all its manifestations -- metamorphosis, grief, fractured
relationships, and slowly mending hearts.
FROM THE CRITICS
Publishers Weekly
The natural world exerts a powerful, brooding presence in this first collection; it's almost as much a main character as any of the individuals the 26-year-old Doerr records. Nature, in these eight stories, is mysterious and deadly, a wonder of design and of nearly overwhelming power. This delicate balance is evidenced by the title story, about a blind man who spends his days collecting rare and beautiful shell specimens. Self-exiled to the coast of Kenya, he discovers that a certain poisonous snail has the power both to kill and to effect a rapid recovery from malaria. This discovery brings him much attention but little joy, disturbing the carefully ordered universe that he has constructed to manage both his blindness and his temperament. A naturalist's perspective also informs the other stories. In "The Hunter's Wife," Doerr catalogues winter in Montana as "a thousand ladybugs hibernating in an orange ball in a riverbank hollow; a pair of dormant frogs buried in frozen mud." But Doerr can play it funny, too: in "July Fourth," a group of American fishermen endure a hilarious litany of woes in a fishing contest across Scandinavia and Eastern Europe. Their troubles include much drinking, few fish and losing their shirts (and all their tackle) to a Belorussian basketball team. The title story could well appear in the next Best American or O. Henry anthologies, and the others make a fine supporting cast. Agent, Wendy Weil. (Jan. 14) Forecast: With blurbs from the likes of Rick Bass, this debut collection should do better than most, especially if reviewers take note. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.
Library Journal
Doerr's prose reveals an obsession with objects: characters are limned by the things around them. He shapes intricate worlds with syllables, rhythms, and carefully chosen words; these stories are a tour de force of letters. The words, in fact, take on lives of their own, as in "The Hunter's Wife," when the "breath that carried his words crystallized and blew away, as if the words themselves had taken on form but expired from the effort." Similarly, the characters swell and recede from the effort of living, creating their own stories. Subtle linguistic self-consciousness, fluid and eddying plots and characters, and brilliant description and simile mold these stories, each as individual and complex as seashells. The characters' exertions, internal and external, mesmerize despite the occasional stilted Hemingwayesque hiccup. A fascinating collection; recommended for all fiction collection. Lyle D. Rosdahl, San Antonio P.L. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.
Kirkus Reviews
This striking debut collection of eight stories offers several boldly imagined and scrupulously detailed explorations of the mysteries inherent in both the natural world and human interconnection.
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