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About Grace

by Anthony Doerr (Goodreads Author)

3.44 of 5 stars 3.44 · rating details · 706 ratings · 121 reviews

When Anthony Doerr's The Shell Collector was published in 2002, the Los Angeles Times called his stories "as close to faultless as any writer -- young or vastly experienced -- could wish for." He won the Rome Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Discover Prize, Princeton's Hodder Fellowship, and two O. Henrys, and shared the Young Lions Award. Now he h

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Hardcover, 416 pages

Published May 11th 2010 by Scribner (first published 2004)

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Mar 25, 2012 TheGirlBytheSeaofCortez rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: books-i-did-not-like, contemporary-authors

About Grace is the first novel from Boise, Idaho based author, Anthony Doerr. He previously published a collection of short stories, The Shell Collector, which were both moving and gorgeous. One of the qualities of the stories contained in The Shell Collector, i.e., each story's deep connection to the natural world in which it takes place, actually becomes one of the chief weaknesses in About Grace.

About Grace opens as its protagonist, David Winkler, a fifty-nine-year-old scientist, especially f...more

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May 06, 2012 Kirstie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I think the key to this novel is that Doerr makes it work because of his ability to write. Much as in the case of his short stories and novella, Memory Wall, Doerr's imagery is astute and often adds so much to the story. About Grace is less about memories and more about dreams and the future. In some ways, it recalls a plot that one could easily associate with Kevin Brockmeier..it starts to dabble in the realm of the supernatural in the sense that the plot speaks of a man who dreams terrifying f...more

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Apr 19, 2012 Terry rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2012, audiobook, fiction, literature

About Grace is beautifully crafted. Doerr has a command of cadence and language that is unparalleled but the book otherwise leaves much to be desired. The main character sometimes receives premonitions which often prove true and much of the book is driven by trying to avoid these fates.

Where the book falls flat is in the exploration of its themes. So, the character gets visions of the future, got it. But then the character can avoid those futures. The main character is clumsy in wielding fate as...more

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Nov 06, 2011 Karen rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

It's hard for me to rate this book. The beautiful language and descriptions would earn a 5. The flow of the book and character development would get a 1 or a 2 so overall I'll say it's a 3.

I think this author's style is much better suited to short stories. I loved his collection "The Shell Collector". This book was written in sections, almost like short stories, but there were inconsistencies between sections --author is a handyman for 20 years in one section, but clueless when the generator st...more

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Feb 13, 2013 Holly rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

David Winkler grows up in Anchorage, Alaska, with a fondness/obsession for snow and other forms of weather. He has a special gift - his dreams sometimes predict the future. He dreams he'll meet his wife in the grocery store, and he dreams their baby daughter Grace will drown in a flood. When the river near their home floods its banks, Winkler loses control. Alienated from his family he flees to a remote Caribbean island.

One could argue Winkler is one of the unluckiest men alive - he almost drown...more David Winkler grows up in Anchorage, Alaska, with a fondness/obsession for snow and other forms of weather. He has a special gift - his dreams sometimes predict the future. He dreams he'll meet his wife in the grocery store, and he dreams their baby daughter Grace will drown in a flood. When the river near their home floods its banks, Winkler loses control. Alienated from his family he flees to a remote Caribbean island.

One could argue Winkler is one of the unluckiest men alive - he almost drowns, he sleepwalks (terrifying everyone around him), he drifts aimlessless on a Caribbean island for 2.5 decades (ironically considered a paradise by many), he gets lost in the desert in Idaho w/ a bum foot flirting w/ dehydration and spends an icy winter in a shed in Alaska.

This is a beautifully written book. The imagery of water and how it moves over the earth in huge cycles is a metaphor for how we are all connected, how one action or lack of action can change the course of our lives. This circular image is further mirrored in events that shape our conscious and unconsciousness - in our dreams, are our minds making connections between things that have happened and playing out a potential future scenario? When we dream we've slept through a class or missed a flight or that we're falling, aren't these future potentials?

In an interview, Doerr mentions that he saw Winkler as sleeping through his life on the island (an anti-paradise for David), eventually waking up and deciding to be the captain of his life, realizing that the future isn't already written, that magic exists in even the smallest kindnesses. This concept of dreams as a sort of super power beyond Winkler's control was compelling and mysterious. We never quite figure it out, but the mystery and the inexplicable ability to keep going despite everything is a statement about the human spirit.

Some critics complain that Doerr's prose gets in the way of the story, but I disagree; he jutaposes the natural and the human in ways that are thought provoking and shows that true beauty and awe can be found in the mundane, and that we can be struck dumb by wonder at what surrounds us, both human and nature, if we just slow down to see.(less)

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Jun 10, 2012 Becky rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2012

This book tells the story of David Winkler, a man who has dreams that are premonitions of the future. It was beautifully written with amazing imagery of the diverse settings of the novel. In Winkler's attempts to escape his dreams he travels from the Caribbean to Alaska and Doerr describes both of these settings in beautiful almost magical detail. Water and snow become the most amazingly complex and beautiful things in Doerr's writing. Other reviewers have stated that while the writing was beaut...more

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Jun 15, 2012 Susan rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I had mixed feelings about this book. The premise was interesting: David Winkler, the protagonist, is a hydrologist who is fascinated by water in all it's forms. He also has dreams that sometimes foretell the future. When he dreams that his infant daughter dies in a flood while he is trying to save her, he is so frightened that he abandons his wife and child and flees to an island in the Caribbean. Where he lives for the next 25 years! The story begins with him on the plane back to the States af...more

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Oct 01, 2008 Bill Perkins rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: top-10

One of my favorite books. The charachter Mr Winkler often is in my thoughts. It is a story of remorse, of growth, of change, and of love. I recommend this to anyone. The text is beautifully written. The characters are deeply defined. I loved every word, and was so sad to see the end.

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Feb 09, 2009 Rachel rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I found this book compelling-a little long, and at times I was really frustrated with Winkler, but I had to find out what would become of him. Very much enjoyed the writing style. It was extremely observant and relaxing. Made me think a lot. I will read more by this author.

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May 08, 2013 Sally Knotwell rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: book-club, fiction

This was a highly touted book for our book club. The premise had me excited to read it. However, once I got started, I found that I was in a constant state of confusion. Each chapter starts out with the main character, David Winkler, as a different age and it does not progress chronologically. It bounces from age 59 to 32 and back and forth with no particular signal that the reader is going back or forth. David Winkler is not a sympathetic character in my opinion. He is immoral and a stalker. An...more

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Dec 30, 2011 Amanda rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I give this book 3 and a half stars. I love the idea of having a guy who dreams of his daughter's death and runs away in the hope of changing the course of events.
The book is set in 5 parts, describing different stages of his life. I really enjoyed the first three quarters of the book but then it started to lag a bit. It did pick up pace towards the end though.
It was certainly an interesting book about relationships and good intentions that aren't always perceived as such.
Doerr takes the reader...more

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Feb 07, 2012 Jane rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: recentfiction

I had mixed feelings about this book. I cared about the sentences, not the characters. They just never came alive for me. The writing is gorgeous, particularly the passages about water in all its permutations--snowflakes, clouds, rain, puddles. I love the idea of a novel growing out of geography and climate, as this novel clearly does. I just don't think it drew me in as I expect a book to. The characters never felt like real people. The were caricatures for me. And I love Doerr's stories and hi...more

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Feb 03, 2013 Lauren rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Well, I had mixed feelings about this book. It was longer than it probably needed to be, and I wasn't really prepared for the twists and turns of the plot which were a bit outlandish in my estimation. I liked the writing, but I found it really difficult to feel at all attached to the main character (who is referred to in third person by only his last name throughout the story. What's with that?) Overall it was certainly a creative novel and contained some beautiful ideas, and I would read more o...more

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Jan 24, 2012 GoldGato rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, winter

Languid. This is a languid book requiring the reader to lower their metabolism to match the flow of the page. If the reader can do this, if the reader can build patience, then a world of graceful prose will be the reward.

The mythology of the Great Flood still lives in our heads. The fear and awe of water and waves and violent whitecaps. "We live in the beds of ancient oceans." Water and its transformation into snowflakes form the basis of this novel. The water in each of us that longs to return...more

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May 13, 2011 Catherine rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

About Grace is less about Grace than her father David Winkler. As a boy, David Winkler grows up in Anchorage, Alaska with his mother, who is of Finnish ancestry and his father, a milk man. His curiosity centers on water, especially in the form of snow. He is a quiet child who dreams things before they happen and who feels he is helpless against fate. He dreams about a man who gets hit by a bus and as he and his mother are out on the street he witnesses the accident. He dreams about a woman he wi...more About Grace is less about Grace than her father David Winkler. As a boy, David Winkler grows up in Anchorage, Alaska with his mother, who is of Finnish ancestry and his father, a milk man. His curiosity centers on water, especially in the form of snow. He is a quiet child who dreams things before they happen and who feels he is helpless against fate. He dreams about a man who gets hit by a bus and as he and his mother are out on the street he witnesses the accident. He dreams about a woman he will fall in love with, then sees her from a grocery checkout line. They run away and get married (she was married when he met her) and have a child named Grace. One night David dreams that as he is trying to save Grace from a flood, she drowns. As the flood becomes reality and the stage is set for his dream to come true he comes unglued and frantically flees, never knowing the outcome of the situation:did Grace live? This is merely the beginning of his odessy. David continues to grapple with the prescience that rules his life and often makes living it difficult.

The novel is organized into six books, representing the six parts of an individual snow crystal.There are multiple levels to this story, metaphors and symbols galore, beginnig with the title About Grace. There are the complexities and uniformities of snowflakes and how that represents the human condition. There is the section of the book where he is lost in the wilderness. But for one thing, I would have completely enjoyed this story. I just couldn't develop any empathy for the main character. His interactions with other people and with life itself just seemed shallow to me. David Winkler didn't live life, he just sort of let it take him along like a piece of driftwood. Even when he goes over the edge it doesn't seem to come from him. There is nothing in the development of his character that give a sense of his inner self. His pain and anguish don't come from within so much as they just happen to him. Right up to the end there is no connection of the inner man with the outer world, which left me cold toward him as a character.

There were times during the reading of this story that the action of the plot made up for the lack of character development. The description of places left me with clear pictures of where the action was taking place. I could see things as they happened because the action itself was well developed, and in those parts of the book I enjoyed the read. If it weren't for that one flaw . . .(less)

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Mar 15, 2011 Miranda rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

For a girl who boasts to the claim of not being a fan of "recreational crying" I would have to say I understand now why some girls like to watch movies that make them cry. I found this book rather therapeutic. The book is called About Grace and it is by Anthony Doerr.

The book is about David Winkler a man who has a vision of his daughter's death, which he sees himself causeing. This vision causes him to then spends his whole life running to avoid it. It follows the path he takes and the people h...more

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Feb 11, 2011 Elsje rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: read-2007

Al eindeloos (meer dan een jaar) lag op mijn MTBR About Grace van Anthony Doerr. Ik weet niet waarom het daar maar bleef liggen, ik kreeg het van een vriendin met een Zeer Overlappende Boekensmaak. Het wat zoetige, tikkie out-of-focus plaatje van een moeder die een baby omklemt misschien? Hoe dan ook, eindelijk vervrouwde :-) ik mezelf en las het. En het viel absoluut niet tegen. Eigenlijk is het gewoon een prima boek. Geen lees-of-ik-schiet ervaring, maar zeker wel bijzonder.

En dat komt vooral...more Al eindeloos (meer dan een jaar) lag op mijn MTBR About Grace van Anthony Doerr. Ik weet niet waarom het daar maar bleef liggen, ik kreeg het van een vriendin met een Zeer Overlappende Boekensmaak. Het wat zoetige, tikkie out-of-focus plaatje van een moeder die een baby omklemt misschien? Hoe dan ook, eindelijk vervrouwde :-) ik mezelf en las het. En het viel absoluut niet tegen. Eigenlijk is het gewoon een prima boek. Geen lees-of-ik-schiet ervaring, maar zeker wel bijzonder.

En dat komt vooral door het gegeven waarop het boek is gebaseerd: David Winkler, weerman en sneeuwfanaat, kan de toekomst dromen. Zo droomt hij op 9-jarige leeftijd tot in minuscule details dat er een man door een bus overreden zal worden en verrek het gebeurt vlak daarop voor zijn ogen. Schokkend natuurlijk. In de jaren daarna gebeurt vaker dat uitkomt wat hij droomt.

En als hij dan op een nacht droomt dat door zijn schuld zijn dochtertje Grace van een paar maanden oud zal verdrinken en het ook nog heel hard gaat regenen, vlucht hij. Hij wil absoluut niet de dood van zijn dochtertje afwachten/in gang zetten. Hij komt op een Caribisch eiland terecht.

Het boek begint 25 jaar later, als Winkler in het vliegtuig terug naar de States vliegt om haar te gaan zoeken. Zonder verklapper kan ik niets meer over die zoektocht zeggen, maar neem maar van mij aan dat hij heel wat door maakt.

Hoe kun je het verleden, dat zich wellicht niet eens heeft afgespeeld, maar je slecht gedroomd/gefantaseerd hebt, goedmaken?

Prachtige beschrijvingen van obsessies: de vorm van sneeuwvlokken, de dood van een geliefde, het gedrag van insekten, de angst voor slaap die wellicht voorspellende dromen zal brengen. Dat biedt dit boek. En de details kloppen in het algemeen. De schrijver heeft zich duidelijk goed ingelezen vo or hij ging schrijven. Hij gaat slechts op één punt echt de mist in: ronduit ongeloofwaardig is de bijziendheid van Winkler. Hij wordt als bijna blind beschreven maar duidelijk door iemand die niets van slechtziendheid weet: "Without glasses he could no longer read a sign thirty feet away." Nou, sorry hoor, maar dan ben je nog helemaal niet zo hulpeloos, of reken ik dit verkeerd om? Thirty feet dat is toch een meter of 10? Voor mijn laserbehandeling kon ik een bordje al niet meer scherp zien als zich dat zich meer dan 20 cm van mij af bevond. En ik had 'slechts' -8.

Als ik al wat aan te merken heb op het boek dan is het dat ik het wat onrustig vind. Sommige delen zijn erg uitgesponnen en andere delen zijn juist weer superglobaal beschreven.(less)

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Feb 03, 2010 Thomas rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Well.....it was a noble effort. Anthony Doerr is such a talented short story writer...concise, lyrical, prose filled with poignant images and symbolism. As I feared, About Grace stumbles....Doerr wants to ensure the themes and structure prevail, at the cost of plausible characters and melodrama. The theme of water- in constant state of flux, and the structure of a snowflake, with its heaxagonal core and malleable, vibrating, transient and brilliant appendages are magnificent, even when the appli...more

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Sep 11, 2011 Emily rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: reviewed

I was given this book by a co-worker to read. She gave it to me on my birthday, but I am not sure if I was suppose to keep it and if it was a present or not, I am a little confused by that. She thought she had read it before called the color of snow or something like that. The writer is known for his collections of short stories, The Shell Collector is his probably most well known one.

The novel is broken up into different books following David Winkler. David has dreams that are kind of like visi...more

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Sep 22, 2012 Annie rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This was a deeply emotional story about love. I don't have the words to describe how it made me feel, just suffice it to say that I walked in the main characters skin, (David Winkler), page to page, and had a closer link to a fictional character than I have in a while - maybe in forever. Doerr's description narrative is so concise and fluid you don't realize he is describing some of the most mundane - or simple - things, like rocks or leaves. Truly brilliant writing.

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Feb 05, 2009 Bookmarks Magazine added it

In his award-winning short story collection The Shell Collector (2002), Doerr drew a vast, gorgeous portrait of the natural world's effects on the human condition. Here, he pays the same painstaking attention to detail, from descriptions of snowflakes to "tiny particles of dust drifting in the air between her ankles." Yet, the intricate, nature-driven plots that captivated readers in The Shell Collector fall short here. Critics agree that Doerr sacrifices a plausible storyline, which takes place

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Jan 04, 2013 Jennifer rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This was a book that had to "grow" on me. At first I was very confused about the dream sequences, the detailed analysis of snow, and the disorganized chronology. However, as the novel progressed I grew to like the characters more, and I began to see the analogy of snow to life. By the end, I was very invested and could not wait to see how Doerr resolved the central questions of his story.

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Jul 28, 2011 Cathy rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I read this because Doerr is a local author, and a prize winner, and I liked him so much when I heard him speak. I wanted to like the book. I listened to it in my car and listened to the whooooooole thing. I started cursing it as I drove down the street. At times I wanted to drive into a telephone pole just to stop the pain. a) I don't like plotting based on poor decisions by the characters. b) I don't like extended meanderings into beautiful descriptive prose about things that have absolutely n...more

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Jan 21, 2012 Leonard rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This novel about a husband and father who has recurrent dreams that come true is really
aboit a man who is trying to protect his family, and doesn't always make the right choices
in the process. Rich in description and covering a wide range of geographic locations
About Grace also explores the thinking of a man estranged from his family and emotionally
conflicted.

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Oct 10, 2007 Lawrence rated it 3 of 5 stars

This story was not a compelling read. For me, the difficulty began with the set up: the author did not make me believe that the dreams of the main character were, in fact, portents of a real future, an inescable fate. Without credibility in this element of the story, the character, his need to escape, and his ultimate forgiveness by those who've been hurt are just too much. This fantastic element is used too clumsily, too conveniently within the novel. And while, there's something interesting ab...more

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Jul 11, 2010 Shawn rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Given how much I loved his collection of short stories I was a little disappointing with this book. Nothing wrong with it, a little slow at times, but over all it's a perfectly fine book. I expected magic though, I expected my heart to stop, I expected the world.

Here's one thing though: Mr. Doerr is quite awesome at making lists. When I write (nowhere near as well as he does mind you) I love to make lists. And he's turned it into quite the art form. Well done sir. And in actuality I think this s...more

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Apr 05, 2011 Tracy rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I really like this author. His writing style really appeals to me. Clever, poetic, lots of environmental metaphors and language. Oddly, I preferred his collection of short stories to this particular work of fiction, but I think it was the storyline. Stories that seem to be entirely built around one mystery that if referenced from the very beginning and gets dragged out until the end, aren't my favorite. I get to distracted by wanting to know (did she or didn't she?) that I have a hard time enjoy...more

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May 13, 2013 Susan rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This was a book club selection. I disliked the main character, David, so much I couldn't get through the book. If I would have known the man, I would have slapped him...hard. I can't believe anyone would just hole up on an island without finding out what happened his daughter after all those years. What a total coward. I will admit that I thought the premise was interesting: a man who could "dream" the future and saw his baby daughter die in his arms. It was a good hook, but the actual excecutio...more

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Sep 21, 2012 Bonnie Jean Decker rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I was completely absorbed up to about 3/4 of the way through this book.

Well written, powerful imagery, and it keeps you curious. By the end, the book begins to lag a bit--most of the book's main questions have been resolved, but it keeps on going. I wish he'd cut it off about 70 or so pages sooner--but it was still worth the read.

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May 18, 2011 Khinna rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A book about a father, Winkler, who deserts his young daughter, to escape his premonition of her death. Doerr has an elegant way of connecting his passages to nature on many levels. The allegorical writing against nature, the formation of water, the studying of bugs- all written without the doldrum of thinking, "Is this science class?" Te stream of consciousness in Winkler's mind was in constant, riveting motion. Some reviews here claim the book was more about Winkler, but his life in entirety (...more

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About Anthony Doerr

Anthony Doerr is the author of four books, The Shell Collector , About Grace , Memory Wall and Four Seasons in Rome . Doerr’s short fiction has won four O. Henry Prizes and has been anthologized in The Best American Short Stories, The Anchor Book of New American Short Stories, and The Scribner Anthology of Contemporary Fiction. He has won the Barnes & Noble Discover Prize, the Rome Prize, the...more

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Books by Anthony Doerr

Four Seasons in Rome: On Twins, Insomnia, and the Biggest Funeral in the History of the World

State by State: A Panoramic Portrait of America

The Anchor Book of New American Short Stories

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