The Shipping News cover art

The Shipping News

 Preview
Try Premium Plus free
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Unlimited access to our all-you-can-listen catalogue of 15K+ audiobooks and podcasts
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically.

The Shipping News

By: Annie Proulx
Narrated by: Robert Joy
Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £13.49

Buy Now for £13.49

About this listen

 Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, The Shipping News is a vigorous, darkly comic, at times magical portrait of the contemporary North American family, and "a rare creation, a lyric page-turner" (Chicago Tribune).

At thirty-six, Quoyle, a third-rate newspaperman is wrenched violently out of his world when his two-timing wife meets her just desserts. He retreats with his two daughters to his ancestral home on the starkly beautiful Newfoundland coast, where a rich cast of local characters all play a part in Quoyle’s struggle to reclaim his life. As three generations of his family cobble up new lives, Quoyle confronts his private demons—and the unpredictable forces of nature and society—and begins to see the possibility of love without pain or misery.

The Shipping News “is charged with sardonic wit—alive, funny, a little threatening: packed with brilliantly original images…and now and then, a sentence that simply takes your breath away” (USA TODAY). Classics Genre Fiction Historical Fiction Literary Fiction Funny Witty
All stars
Most relevant
Really enjoyed this. Great portrayals of Newfoundland scenery. Quoyle's journey back home and his realisations about family.

wonderful

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
enjoyable. lookforwardable to. the prose and accents swish and sway. the plot crests and troughs effortlessly. the quirky bastards of Newfoundland are known to us all. thank you thank you thank you

wow.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Has always been one of my favourite books - the bumbling, dogged but utterly engaging Qouile is sensitively realised, as are the many engaging characters he meets on his difficult but ultimately fulfilling journey. I've always loved this book and got more out of it every time I read it. Listening to it has been a whole new pleasure. While I would have liked the audio version to be unabridged, I have really enjoyed it

Wonderful

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I almost didn't buy this as there were some downbeat reviews that talked of 'nothing much happening' and the prose being tricky. I couldn't agree less! I thought the characters and stories were wonderful and the writing style was amazing! I was enthralled and found it more like Kate Atkinson's style than Anne Tyler's, as another reviewer had suggested. It has the wonderful mix of the mundane and the surreal. I loved it. I haven't seen the film, but will be buying the DVD.

Mesmerising

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
if you like Anne Tyler then you will like this. I love the slow burn of stories about people where something but nothing happens. A man moves to newfoundland with his 2 children and tries to begin again after a tragedy. but there are old family ties that create the story and interweave with his life.

Perfect

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews