The Shipping News

At thirty-six, Quoyle, a third-rate newspaperman, is wrenched violently out of his workaday life when his two-timing wife meets her just deserts. 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. A vigorous, darkly comic, and at times magical portrait of the contemporary American family, The Shipping News shows why E Annie Proulx is recognized as one of the most gifted and original writers in America today.