Zorrie

By: Laird Hunt

Narrated by: Holly Palance

Bloomsbury presents Zorrie by Laird Hunt, read by Holly Palance.

Finalist for the 2021 National Book Award (Fiction)
“A virtuosic portrait.” –New York Times Book Review
“A tender, glowing novel.” –Anthony Doerr, Guardian, “Best Books of the Year”
“Pages that are polished like jewels.” –Scott Simon, NPR, "Books We Love"
"Lit from within.” —Mark Athitakis, Los Angeles Times, “Best Fiction Books of the Year”
"A touching, tightly woven story from an always impressive author." —Kirkus (starred review), “Best Fiction of the Year”
“Radiates the heat of a beating heart.” –Vox
“A poignant, unforgettable novel.” –Hernan Diaz

From prize-winning, acclaimed author Laird Hunt, a poignant novel about a woman searching for her place in the world and finding it in the daily rhythms of life in rural Indiana.

“It was Indiana, it was the dirt she had bloomed up out of, it was who she was, what she felt, how she thought, what she knew.”

As a girl, Zorrie Underwood’s modest and hardscrabble home county was the only constant in her young life. After losing both her parents, Zorrie moved in with her aunt, whose own death orphaned Zorrie all over again, casting her off into the perilous realities and sublime landscapes of rural, Depression-era Indiana. Drifting west, Zorrie survived on odd jobs, sleeping in barns and under the stars, before finding a position at a radium processing plant. At the end of each day, the girls at her factory glowed from the radioactive material.

But when Indiana calls Zorrie home, she finally finds the love and community that have eluded her in and around the small town of Hillisburg. And yet, even as she tries to build a new life, Zorrie discovers that her trials have only begun.

Spanning an entire lifetime, a life convulsed and transformed by the events of the 20th century, Laird Hunt’s extraordinary novel offers a profound and intimate portrait of the dreams that propel one tenacious woman onward and the losses that she cannot outrun. Set against a harsh, gorgeous, quintessentially American landscape, this is a deeply empathetic and poetic novel that belongs on a shelf with the classics of Willa Cather, Marilynne Robinson, and Elizabeth Strout.©2021 Laird Hunt (P)2021 Bloomsbury Publishing PLC

Critic reviews

A virtuosic portrait of midcentury America itself--physically stalwart, unerringly generous, hopeful that tragedy can be mitigated through faith in land and neighbor alike . . . This is a refined realism of the sort Flaubert himself championed, storytelling that accrues detail by lean detail . . . Hunt’s prose is galvanized by powerful questions. Who were those forebears who tilled the land for decades, seemingly without complaint? How did they fashion happiness, or manage soaring passions, in their conformist communities? He re-examines the pastoral with ardent precision . . . What Hunt ultimately gives us is a pure and shining book, an America where community becomes a ‘symphony of souls,’ a sustenance greater than romance or material wealth for those wise enough to join in.

A tender, glowing novel . . . as beautiful as Marilynne Robinson’s Gilead or Denis Johnson’s Train Dreams.

The book feels irradiated itself . . . lit from within.

The National Book Award finalist of a novel packs a whole, absorbing human life into just 161 pages that are polished like jewels.

A beautiful rumination on finding meaning in our days.

A slim yet profound portrait of the life of an Indiana woman named Zorrie, spanning a humble lifetime shaped by the events of the 20th century.

Zorrie is a quiet novel about an ordinary life. And when you're ordinary, you need resilience like Zorrie's to survive in an uncaring world. Laird Hunt's short and affecting novel follows Zorrie Underwood's life from childhood in Depression-era Indiana, when she's orphaned, to early adulthood, when she's left on her own, to an eventual marriage and working life.

A deceptively simple book about the curious forces that shape a life . . . Hunt’s novel reads like poetry, evoking writers like Paul Harding and Marilynne Robinson, and radiates the heat of a beating heart.

Through an ordinary life of hard work and simple pleasures, Zorrie comes to learn the real wonder is life itself. A quiet, beautifully done, and memorable novel.

Quietly effective. [Hunt’s] often lyrical prose traces Zorrie’s hopes, griefs, loneliness, and resolve with remarkable economy . . . A touching, tightly woven story from an always impressive author.

A slight but poignant chronicle of a woman alone—and the grief, historic events and transformations that make her whole…ZORRIE is a novel that feels like it lives and breathes, and Hunt’s ability to interweave unimaginable beauty with poignant, deep longing makes it an instant American classic.

A powerful portrait of longing and community in the American Midwest…Hunt chronicles the events of Zorrie’s life with swiftness and precision, [and] a quiet sensitivity rarely seen in American fiction…Zorrie is a poetic reminder of the importance of being a happy presence in other people’s memories.

No plot, no point

Well written but stulifyingly dull. Our book club had difficulty discussing for a full hour

Beautiful writing, bad storytelling

This book is beautifully written, but at times it moves terribly slowly. I’m from Indiana and related to the rural life that is depicted so lyrically, but sometimes it droned on and on. [She brought the fork down through the crust and peaches to the plate then lifted the fork to her mouth and brought her lips around the fork. She chewed four times and swallowed...] Sweet mercy! Just say she took a dang bite of pie!

Stunning

I loved this quiet, exquisite book that felt more like mediation than “reading.” The descriptions of Zorrie’s life on her farm, the gardening, her friendships, the day to dayness of ordinary life are lovely reminders that happiness and gratitude lie in the every day.

Dull and uninspired writing

This book is a waste of 4 1/2 good hours. Skip it. The story line is dull and the writing is dull.

Tolerated for a book group

I found this to be a slow depressing mundane story with mediocre writing containing scenes portrayed by innumerable bird behavior and down home cooking being eaten, not helped along by the syrupy narration.