"If you have stopped reading short stories because they have turned pretentious, silly or meaningless," begins Nancy Connors' review in the Plain Dealer, "The Shell Collector is good reason to come back to this most American of forms." The Boston Globe says the stories in the collection "don't so much blur or diminish our place in the scheme of things as they blow open one's perspective," the LA Times declares it a "show-stopping debut," and Library Journal called it a "tour-de-force of letters." In my first book, a collection of eight stories, I tried to take advantage of the potential range of a collection of stories by setting each one in a different place, from Kenya to Montana to Liberia to Maine. The book, winner of the Barnes & Noble Discover Prize,was a New York Times and Publishers' Weekly Notable Book of 2002. The American Library Association named it an oustanding book of the year, and Kirkus listed it in its top ten "undersung but richly deserving titles." It also won the New York Public Library's Young Lions Award and the Ohioana Book Award for fiction. The title story appeared in the 2003 O. Henry Prize Stories, and the 2003 Best American Short Stories. Click here to read some reviews. The Shell Collector is in its 5th printing in hardcover and 3rd printing in paperback. Book clubs are welcome to click here for a reading guide, an interview with me, and discussion questions. Or e-mail me to see if I'm available to attend your meeting. Thank you for your interest!
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