The Shell Collector

by Anthony Doerr • 2001

The eight exquisitely crafted stories in Anthony Doerr’s first book take readers from Lamu on the eastern coast of Africa to the pine forests of Montana to the damp moors of Lapland, charting a vast physical and emotional landscape. Doerr explores the human condition in all its varieties—metamorphosis, grief, fractured relationships, and slowly mending hearts—conjuring nature in both its beautiful abundance and crushing power. Some of the characters in these stories contend with hardships; some discover unique gifts; all are united by their ultimate deference to the ravishing universe outside themselves.