{"product_id":"9781250062451","title":"The Plover : A Novel","description":"\u003cstrong\u003eThe Plover\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor(s): Brian Doyle\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eDeclan O Donnell has sailed deep into the vast, wild ocean, having had just finally \u003ci\u003eenough\u003c\/i\u003e of other people and their problems. He will go it alone, he will be his own country, he will be beholden to and beloved of no one.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBut the galaxy soon presents him with a string of odd, entertaining, and dangerous passengers, who become companions of every sort and stripe. \u003ci\u003eThe Plover\u003c\/i\u003e is the story of their adventures and misadventures in the immense blue country one of their company calls Pacifica. Hounded by a mysterious enemy, reluctantly acquiring one new resident after another, Declan O Donnell's lonely boat is eventually crammed with humor, argument, tension, and a resident herring gull.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBrian Doyle's \u003ci\u003eThe Plover\u003c\/i\u003e is a sea novel, a maritime adventure, the story of a cold man melting, a compendium of small miracles, an elegy to Edmund Burke, a watery quest, a battle at sea---and a rapturous, heartfelt celebration of life's surprising paths, planned and unplanned.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eReview(s):\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Brian Doyle writes with Melville's humor, Whitman's ecstasy, and Faulkner's run-on sentences . . . Few contemporary novels shimmer like this one.” —\u003ci\u003eAnthony Doerr, author of All the Light We Cannot See\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Conrad, Stevenson, and Jack London come to mind, but so does the magical realism of Gabriel García Márquez . . . \u003ci\u003eThe Plover\u003c\/i\u003e sails delightfully on an imaginative sea of insight, compassion, and a kind of mystical grace.” —\u003ci\u003eThe Seattle Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“It is Doyle's careful shaping of his characters' internal landscapes that makes \u003ci\u003eThe Plover\u003c\/i\u003e so unique . . . A novel of wondrous ideas worth mulling over.” —\u003ci\u003eThe Oregonian\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“A rare and unusual book and a brilliant, mystical exploration of the human spirit.” —\u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews (starred review)\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Brian Doyle has spun a great sea story, filled with apparitions, poetry, thrills, and wisdom. The sweet, buoyant joy under every sentence carried me along and had me cheering. I enjoyed this book enormously.” —\u003ci\u003eIan Frazier, author of Travels in Siberia and The Cursing Mommy's Book of Days\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Board this boat! Here's Doyle at his probing, astonishing, wordslinging best.” —\u003ci\u003eRobin Cody, author of Voyage of a Summer Sun\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“\u003ci\u003eThe Plover \u003c\/i\u003ealternately reminded me of \u003ci\u003eThe Unusual Life of Tristan Smith \u003c\/i\u003eby Peter Carey, with its crippled main character and fictional country; \u003ci\u003eThe Life of Pi \u003c\/i\u003eby Yann Martel, for strange adventures at sea; \u003ci\u003eFlorence and Giles \u003c\/i\u003eby John Harding, for made-up words; and the works of Gabriel Garcia Marquez for the elements of magical realism. ” —\u003ci\u003eBooksquawk\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Doyle has written a novel in the adventurous style of Jack London and Robert Louis Stevenson but with a gentle mocking of their valorization of the individual as absolute. Readers will enjoy this bracing and euphoric ode to the vastness of the ocean and the unexpectedness of life.” —\u003ci\u003eLibrary Journal (starred)\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“A novel about the sea. It is a rhythmic read. The cadence of the sea and of on-board conversation creates a mosaic of movement. The ocean serves as both protagonist and antagonist. It holds everyone together as it strives to pull everyone apart. It slides through the novel and lulls us into its great heart.” —\u003ci\u003eThe Portland Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“\u003ci\u003eThe Plover\u003c\/i\u003e is a fun ride with meaning and heart, lots of it, as well as jokes, scares, storms at sea, surprises, magic, absurdity--and humanity, exuberant joyful humanity.” —\u003ci\u003eShelf Awareness (starred review)\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“I don't know how many all-bird novels are out there, but Doyle could rule the canon. The aviary ensemble of\u003ci\u003e The Plover \u003c\/i\u003e('those who have heard it say it has a mournful yet eager sound'), separated from the whole of the narrative, deftly and gracefully drives a stand-alone tale. ... But this is a people story -- it's full of them. They are colorfully introduced, down to the detailed fabric of their being and then often released from the tale, only to be intricately woven back in.” —\u003ci\u003eThe Register-Guard\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eISBN:  9781250062451\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e ","brand":"Picador","offers":[{"title":"Paperback \/ softback","offer_id":40642332098766,"sku":"9781250062451","price":18.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0600\/7029\/7806\/products\/getimage_1e8988d0-3933-42ef-9016-5dc0a5c6fce6.jpg?v=1639104554","url":"https:\/\/pickwickbookshop.com\/products\/9781250062451","provider":"Pickwick Bookshop","version":"1.0","type":"link"}