The Shipping News by E. Annie Proulx (1994, Paperback)

As with most books made into film, the book is by far better but in this instance I saw the film first and read the book recently as a selection from our book club. What I wasn't prepared for was to love the book so much I can barely remember any details of the film...and at the time I loved it too. There's no question as to why the author won such a prestigious award for this book. Her use of the English language to describe the experiences in this book is brilliant. I found myself completely wrapped up in the characters...the ones I liked and the ones I disliked so much so that I began thinking about them when I wasn't reading the book. Wondering what they were planning to do, I even found myself wanting to visit Newfoundland despite the bleak picture painted in the novel. I really cared about Quoyle, his family and his friends as though I knew him too. It's not often a book can draw me in so completely but what pleasure when it does!