“The stories in Memory Wall have such scope and depth that they hit as hard as novels three times their length. Doerr has set a new standard, I think, for what the story can do.”
—DAVE EGGERS
Winner of the Story Prize
Winner of a 2011 Pacific Northwest Book Award
A Notable Book of 2010 in the New York Times
A Top 12 Book of 2010 at the Boston Globe
A San Francisco Chronicle Book of the Year
Top 10 Fiction and Literature of 2010 at Amazon
Paperback includes "The Deep," Winner of the 2011 Sunday Times Audible Short story Prize
Featuring five short stories and two novellas, Anthony’s second story collection poses a suite of questions about memory: what it means to us as individuals and as a species, and how it comprises the self. Memory Wall takes place on four continents and addresses issues from Alzheimer’s in South Africa to infertility in Wyoming to fishing for endangered sturgeon in Lithuania.
The title novella won the National Magazine Award for Fiction, the second story has been called “a masterpiece of observed detail and intuitive poetic sense, like DeLillo at his best,” the fourth story won an O. Henry Prize, the fifth won a 2011 Pushcart Prize, and the bonus story added to the paperback edition, titled “The Deep,” won the 2011 Sunday Times Audible Short Story Prize, the largest prize in the world for a single short story. Can a short story collection take you to more places and introduce you to more people than a novel?
“Crazy good.”
–The Oregonian
“The impetus of a Doerr story is always a movement toward transcendence… Doerr writes about the big questions, the imponderables, the major metaphysical dreads, and he does it fearlessly.”
-The NEw York times Book REview
“Doerr both lingers wonderfully over the details of individual lives and suggests the enormity of those billion things contained therein – mysterious, mournful and lovely as they are, and as we remember them.”
–San Francisco Chronicle
“A breathtaking book, not only for the range of stories it tells, and the near-perfect writing, but for its ability to capture memories, and how we spend our entire adult lives reliving them.”
–The Atlantic
“Doerr’s fantastic new stories build on the reputation he established in 2001 with ‘The Shell Collector.’”
–The Plain Dealer
“Doerr is a lusciously good stylist.”
–The Guardian
“A small classic of contemporary literature.”
–NATIONAL POST