About Grace

About Grace

by Anthony Doerr (Author)

Synopsis

Beautifully written and compelling, About Grace is the long-awaited debut novel from Anthony Doerr. Growing up in Alaska, young David Winkler is crippled by his dreams. At nine, he dreams a man is decapitated by a passing truck on the path outside his family's home. The next day, unable to prevent it, he witnesses an exact replay of his dream, in real life. The premonitions keep coming, unstoppably. He sleepwalks during them, bringing catastrophe into his reach. Then, as unstoppable as a vision, he falls in love, at the supermarket (exactly as he already dreamed) with Sandy. They flee south, landing in Ohio, where their daughter Grace is born. And then the visions of Grace's death begin for Winkler, as their waterside home is inundated. Plagued by the same horrific images of Grace drowning, when the floods come, he cannot face his destiny and flees. He beaches on a remote Caribbean island, where he works as a handyman, chipping away at his doubts and hopes, never knowing whether Grace survived the flood or met the doom he foretold. After two decades, he musters the strength to find out!

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More Information

Format: Hardcover
Pages: 416
Publisher: Fourth Estate
Published: 03 Jan 2005

ISBN 10: 0007146973
ISBN 13: 9780007146970

Media Reviews
Advance praise for About Grace: 'I loved this wonderful book -- its strangeness, its obsessiveness, its beautiful sentences.' Monica Ali, author of Brick Lane 'The story and its unusual hero, David Winkler, right away become fixed in a reader's attentions and stay there. About Grace is full of exacting dreams, marvelous incident, tragic-comic underpinnings and a dedication to the fundamental eccentricity of life. With the stories in The Shell Collector, we discovered a writer of immense talent; this novel gives us a sense that Mr. Doerr may become an indispensable one.' Howard Norman, author of The Museum Guard Praise for The Shell Collector: 'An extraordinary debut collection, filled with the vastness of the natural world pressing against human insignificance.' Guardian 'Exquisite! I can think of very few authors whose words sing with such music.' The Times
Author Bio
Anthony Doerr's stories have appeared in numerous publications, including Atlantic Monthly. The Shell Collector is his first book. He is 30 and lives in Idaho, where he is Distinguished Writer-in-Residence at Boise State University. He has also recently been awarded a fellowship at Princeton University.