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Carol Shields Biography, Books, and Similar Authors

Author Biography  | Interview  | Books by this Author  | Read-Alikes

Carol Shields

Carol Shields

Carol Shields Biography

Carol Shields (1935–2003) is the author of The Stone Diaries, which won the 1995 Pulitzer Prize for fiction, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and Canada's Governor General's Award. Her other novels and short story collections include The Republic of Love, Happenstance, and Swann. Shields's work has been translated into 33 languages.

Carol Shields's website

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Interview

Carol Shields discusses what inspired her to write Unless, how she became a writer and who has most influenced her writing.

Can you tell us how you became a writer?
I was a word-conscious child. My terrible early efforts -- by terrible, I mean derivative and unreflective -- were encouraged by my teachers and parents. I loved narrative; I knew that very early. And the act of writing was for me probably the most spiritual experience in my life. It seemed only natural to write the kind of books that I wanted to read.

What inspired you to write this particular book? Is there a story about the writing of this novel that begs to be told?
I wanted to write a novel after writing a biography and I found the voice of the novel in a short story I had previously published, "A Scarf," in Dressing Up for the Carnival. I wanted to write in the first person after many years of writing in the third person. A friend, Winnipeg writer Jake MacDonald, convinced me during one of our many long lunches that we novelists would be able to show more "decent" people in fiction if we wrote in the first person. His theory is that the third-person voice makes us nasty and ironic and less in tune with the world. I think he's right. I chose the voice of 44 year-old Reta Winters, a wife and mother, a writer and translator, who has suffered a grievous loss. ...

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Books by this Author

Books by Carol Shields at BookBrowse
Happenstance jacket Unless jacket Swann jacket
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Read-Alikes

All the books below are recommended as read-alikes for Carol Shields but some maybe more relevant to you than others depending on which books by the author you have read and enjoyed. So look for the suggested read-alikes by title linked on the right.
How we choose read-alikes

  • Paul Auster

    Paul Auster

    Paul Auster was the bestselling author of 4 3 2 1Sunset ParkThe Book of Illusions, Moon Palace, and The New York Trilogy, among many other works. In 2006, he was awarded the Prince of Asturias Award ... (more)

    If you enjoyed:
    Swann

    Try:
    Invisible
    by Paul Auster

  • Julian Barnes

    Julian Barnes

    Julian Barnes is the author of fourteen novels, including The Sense of an Ending, which won the 2011 Booker Prize, and Sunday Times bestsellers The Noise of Time and The Only Story. He has also written three books of short ... (more)

    If you enjoyed:
    Swann

    Try:
    Talking It Over
    by Julian Barnes

We recommend 14 similar authors


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