Shipping News

By: Annie Proulx

Narrated by: Paul Hecht

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, The Shipping News is a vigorous, darkly comic, at times magical portrait of the contemporary North American family, and "a rare creation, a lyric page-turner" (Chicago Tribune).

At thirty-six, Quoyle, a third-rate newspaperman is wrenched violently out of his world when his two-timing wife meets her just desserts. He retreats with his two daughters to his ancestral home on the starkly beautiful Newfoundland coast, where a rich cast of local characters all play a part in Quoyle’s struggle to reclaim his life. As three generations of his family cobble up new lives, Quoyle confronts his private demons—and the unpredictable forces of nature and society—and begins to see the possibility of love without pain or misery.

The Shipping News “is charged with sardonic wit—alive, funny, a little threatening: packed with brilliantly original images…and now and then, a sentence that simply takes your breath away” (USA TODAY).

I think I have now traveled to Newfoundland!

Annie Proulx's Pulitzer winner is so vivid and unique. The descriptions of the culture and the landscape of Newfoundland was tangible and beautiful. I could feel the cold wind in the winter. I could taste the fish. I could hear the flat, nasal accents of the region. Everything about this book makes you feel like you have actually been to the cliffsides of the small seaside villages in the arctic. I love when a book transports me, and this one did. This is a new favorite.

The best

This is one of the best books I've ever read. Annie Proulx doesn't give shallow descriptions of anything or anybody. It is rich and textured. And in the end hopeful. Loved Paul Hecht's narration and good Newfie accents. It comes to life and you can picture all of it. Plus you learn some nautical stuff too.

best narrator!!

what a wonderful story. i love the way Annie Proulx writes, it makes your imagination run with the sentences without hesitation. this narrator is my favorite so far, the way he does the childrens voices made me laugh out loud many times.

Strange but compelling

We’re reading, but I cant quite tell you why. Setting, style, different. it just is.

A curiously wonderful read/listen

I read this novel twenty years ago and didn't see it - just didn't. Thought, strange story, slow, meanders in odd ways and into odd places. Characters quirky, sure, but story? Bits here and there, lots of detail, but nothing much happening. Twenty years ago it literally annoyed me.

Now I've read it a second time ... and was blown away. Words strung together in wonderous ways. How could I have not seen it before? Magical concoctions, phrases like gems, metaphors of sheer beauty, imagery, imagination ... what can I say, read it!

PS: And do not watch the movie - not before, not after - terrible stuff.