Anthony Doerr

Explores the variety of the human condition in a collection of short stories about love, relationships, grief, and hardship.

Stories

The Shell Collector

A debut collection of evocative short fiction explores the complex mysteries of the human condition--grief, transformation, fractured relationships, and mending hearts--in a volume that includes the title story, "The Hunter's Wife," and "For a Long Time This Was Griselda's Story," about two Idaho sisters struggling to come to terms with their diverse paths in life. 12,500 first printing.

Colton Ray

This was a wonderful collection of short stories, but the one that amazed me the most by far was The Hunter's Wife, a beautifully written ode to love and passion in the Montana wilderness that evokes Annie Dillard by way of Chris McCandless. The Caretaker and Mkondo were also standouts, while July Fourth and A Tangle by the Rapids were easily skippable. Altogether, well worth a read-through, and I am excited to read Doerr's novel.


The Shell Collector 4/5

The Hunter's Wife 5/5

So Many Chances 3/5

For a Long Time This Was Griselda’s Story 3/5

July Fourth 2/5

The Caretaker 5/5

A Tangle by the Rapid 2/5

Mkondo 4/5

Excellent collection of short stories by an excellent writer. I struggle to put into words both Doerr's style of prose, and the nature of the themes subtly woven into his tales. But I'm a fan of both.

Frederik De Bosschere

Amy L Hamilton

Some stories were great and others were a struggle to finish.

Aksara Alpha

Matt Messner

Ryan Mateyk

The "perilously beautiful" (Boston Globe) first story collection by the author of the acclaimed Pulitzer Prize-winning #1 New York Times bestseller All The Light We Cannot See and Cloud Cuckoo Land. The exquisitely crafted stories in Anthony Doerr’s debut collection take readers from the African Coast to the pine forests of Montana to the damp moors of Lapland, charting a vast physical and emotional landscape. Doerr explores the human condition in all its varieties—metamorphosis, grief, fractured relationships, and slowly mending hearts—conjuring nature in both its beautiful abundance and crushing power. Some of the characters in these stories contend with hardships; some discover unique gifts; all are united by their ultimate deference to the ravishing universe outside themselves.

The Shell Collector Stories

Reviews