Author(s): Anthony Doerr

Fiction

About Grace is a beautiful literary story of the highest accomplishment and style. It's the long-awaited debut novel from the author of The Shell Collector - perhaps the best-reviewed collection of American short stories of the last few years. 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 shock of his premonition sobers him, makes him careful, studious, tentative. But the premonitions keep coming, unstoppably. He sleepwalks during them, bringing catastrophe into his reach. He makes his career as a hydrologist, a weatherman, and gives himself to life sparingly. 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, as their waterside home is inundated. Like some kind of Cassandra, plagued by the same horrific images of Grace drowning, when the floods come Winkler cannot face his destiny and flees, again, alone. 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... "To say this book is beautiful, extraordinary or moving is futile. In comparison with Anthony Doerr's word-perfect prose, any description of his first novel seems trite. Just buy ABOUT GRACE, call in sick, switch off the phone and see for yourself how good contemporary fiction can be... [David's] determination to photograph the ephemeral beauty of snowflakes forms just one of the many profound strands in this unforgettable novel." - Guardian