About the Book

"The ... stories in Anthony Doerr's debut collection take readers from the African Coast 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"--Publisher marketing.

Book Synopsis

The "perilously beautiful" (The Boston Globe) first story collection by Pulitzer Prize-winning and #1 New York Times bestselling author Anthony Doerr, acclaimed writer of All the Light We Cannot See and Cloud Cuckoo Land.

The exquisitely crafted stories in Anthony Doerr's debut collection, The Shell Collector, takes readers from the African Coast 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.

A stunning and unforgettable debut, The Shell Collector established Doerr as a master of literary short fiction, making it a must-read for fans of Best American Short Stories, environmentally rich fiction, and character-driven storytelling.

Review Quotes

"The Shell Collector is breathtaking.... Perilously beautiful." --Boston Globe

"Anthony Doerr is a gifted and fearless new writer. He is absolutely unafraid to take on the biggest themes of the human condition, always writing about heroes and their various epic journeys. The Shell Collector is unforgettable--not so much a book of short stories as a book of short myths."--Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love

"Doerr's prose dazzles, his sinewy sentences blending the naturalists' unswerving gaze with the poet's gift for metaphor."--The New York Times Book Review

About the Author

Anthony Doerr is the author of All the Light We Cannot See, winner of the Pulitzer Prize, the Carnegie Medal, the Alex Award, and a #1 New York Times bestseller. He is also the author of the story collections Memory Wall and The Shell Collector, the novel About Grace, and the memoir Four Seasons in Rome. He has won five O. Henry Prizes, the Rome Prize, the New York Public Library's Young Lions Award, the National Magazine Award for fiction, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and the Story Prize. Born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio, Doerr lives in Boise, Idaho, with his wife and two sons.