“His earliest sense of self was as a distant figure: there in the foreground was his family; here, at the limit of the far view, was he. Until he was fourteen he cherished the idea that he had been given to the wrong family, that somewhere his real people, saddled with the changeling of the Quoyles, longed for him.”
Winner of the 1994 Pulitzer Prize for fiction, The Shipping
News tells the story of Quoyle, a newspaper journalist who returns to the old
family home in Newfoundland after his unfaithful wife dies in a car accident.
Taking his two small daughters and an elderly aunt with him, Quoyle begins his
life again, finding unexpected happiness and redemption. Proulx’s striking use
of language, evocative settings and quirky humour (Quoyle often thinks in
newspaper headlines: Dog Farts Fell Family of Four) turn this tale of tragic
characters into an uplifting celebration of family, friendship and people’s
potential for change.
Listen to a
radio interview with Annie Proulx here.
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