Anthony Doerr

Set on four continents, stories about memory.

Stories

Memory Wall

kari <33

Ilse

Normally I’m not really a fan of short story bundles, but I absolutely loved these! Although I naturally liked some stories better than others (I particularly liked Village 113 and Memory Wall), the writing was amazing as one would expect from Anthony Doerr and the stories well thought-through with great characters. Definitely would recommend fans of Doerr to pick this up!

From an award-winning and extraordinarily eloquent author whose "prose dazzles" (The New York Times Book Review) comes a second stunning collection. Set on four continents, Anthony Doerr's new stories are about memory, the source of meaning and coherence in our lives, the fragile thread that connects us to ourselves and to others. Every hour, says Doerr, all over the globe, an infinite number of memories disappear. Yet at the same time children, surveying territory that is entirely new to them, push back the darkness, form fresh memories, and remake the world. In the luminous and beautiful title story, a young boy in South Africa comes to possess an old woman's secret, a piece of the past with the power to redeem a life. In "The River Nemunas," a teenage orphan moves from Kansas to Lithuania to live with her grandfather, and discovers a world in which myth becomes real. "Village 113," winner of an O'Henry Prize, is about the building of the Three Gorges Dam and the seed keeper who guards the history of a village soon to be submerged. And in "Afterworld," the radiant, cathartic final story, a woman who escaped the Holocaust is haunted by visions of her childhood friends in Germany, yet finds solace in the tender ministrations of her grandson. Every story in Memory Wall is a reminder of the grandeur of life--of the mysterious beauty of seeds, of fossils, of sturgeon, of clouds, of radios, of leaves, of the breathtaking fortune of living in this universe. Doerr's language, his witness, his imagination, and his humanity are unparalleled in fiction today.

Daryl Houston

I liked this, but it was a little sluggish at times. All the stories are solid work, just not as gripping or affecting on the whole as All the Light We Cannot See. I really liked the river story a lot.

Memory Wall Stories

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