Pulitzer Prize Fiction Winner
The Shipping News
by E. Annie Proulx
Summary
After the death of his unfaithful wife, a hapless newspaperman moves with his two young daughters and an aging aunt to his ancestral coastal village in Newfoundland, where he takes a job covering boat traffic for the local paper. Proulx writes in a clipped, fragmentary prose studded with weather, knot-lore, and regional speech, slowly building a portrait of community and second chances. The novel is celebrated for its vivid sense of place and its idiosyncratic music.
”
Historical Context & Significance
Proulx's win was notable for its unique, "choppy" prose style and its celebration of a remote, rugged landscape and its eccentric people.