"If you read one of Anthony Doerr's books, or even just one story, you'll probably want to read the rest. But if you want to start with a novel, this one's perfect: It's about a man who may or may not dream of the future, who may or may not have needlessly abandoned his family in self-imposed exile for their own protection. But it's also as much about entomology and the chemical composition of snow as anything else. About Grace exemplifies the idea that hope is difficult to foster, especially when you don't believe you're deserving of it."
Publisher Penguin Books
Publication Date 2005-09-27
Section Fiction / All Staff Suggestions / Fiction Suggestions / Archived Staff Suggestions / Greg G.
Format Paperback
ISBN 9780143036166
When Anthony Doerr's The Shell Collector was published in 2002, the Los Angeles Times called his stories "as close to faultless as any writer—young or vastly experienced—could wish for." He won the Rome Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Discover Prize, Princeton's Hodder Fellowship, and two O. Henrys, and shared the Young Lions Award. Now he has written one of the most beautiful, wise, and compelling first novels of recent times.
David Winkler begins life in Anchorage, Alaska, a quiet boy drawn to the volatility of weather and obsessed with snow. Sometimes he sees things before they happen—a man carrying a hatbox will be hit by a bus; Winkler will fall in love with a woman in a supermarket. When David dreams that his infant daughter will drown in a flood as he tries to save her, he comes undone. He travels thousands of miles, fleeing family, home, and the future itself, to deny the dream.
On a Caribbean island, destitute, alone, and unsure if his child has survived or his wife can forgive him, David is sheltered by a couple with a daughter of their own. Ultimately it is she who will pull him back into the world, to search for the people he left behind.
Doerr's characters are full of grief and longing, but also replete with grace. His compassion for human frailty is extraordinarily moving. In luminous prose, he writes about the power and beauty of nature and about the tiny miracles that transform our lives. About Grace is heartbreaking, radiant, and astonishingly accomplished.
