{"title":"Books by Annie Proulx","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"9780007232017","title":"Barkskins","description":"LONGLISTED FOR THE BAILEYS WOMEN’S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2017NOW A MAJOR TELEVISION SERIESFrom Annie Proulx, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Shipping News and Brokeback Mountain, comes her masterwork: an epic, dazzling, violent, magnificently dramatic novel about the taking down of the world’s forests.In the late seventeenth century two penniless young Frenchmen, René Sel and Charles Duquet, arrive in New France. Bound to a feudal lord, a “seigneur,” for three years in exchange for land, they become wood-cutters – barkskins. René suffers extraordinary hardship, oppressed by the forest he is charged with clearing. He is forced to marry a Mi’kmaw woman and their descendants live trapped between two inimical cultures. But Duquet, crafty and ruthless, runs away from the seigneur, becomes a fur trader, then sets up a timber business. Proulx tells the stories of the descendants of Sel and Duquet over three hundred years – their travels across North America, to Europe, China, and New Zealand, under stunningly brutal conditions; the revenge of rivals; accidents; pestilence; Indian attacks; and cultural annihilation. Over and over again, they seize what they can of a presumed infinite resource, leaving the modern-day characters face to face with possible ecological collapse.Proulx’s inimitable genius is her creation of characters who are so vivid – in their greed, lust, vengefulness, or their simple compassion and hope – that we follow them with fierce attention. Annie Proulx is one of the most formidable and compelling American writers, and Barkskins is her greatest novel, a magnificent marriage of history and imagination.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43201158185138,"sku":"9780007232017","price":16.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780007232017.jpg?v=1785658872"},{"product_id":"9780008534431","title":"Fen, Bog and Swamp","description":"\u003cp\u003eA BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘Magnificent’ Guardian ‘Remarkable … A compact classic!’ Bill McKibben\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘I learned something new – and found something amazing – on every page’ Anthony Doerr, author of All the Light We Cannot SeeFens, bogs, swamps and marine estuaries are the earth’s most desirable and dependable resources. Here, Pulitzer Prize winner Annie Proulx brings her witness and research to the vitally important role they play in preserving the environment, and their systemic destruction in the pursuit of profit. Travelling from the fens of sixteenth-century England to America’s Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, Fen, Bog and Swamp is both a revelatory history and an urgent plea for wetland reclamation, from one of our greatest prose stylists.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘A rousing call to action’ Esquire\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘Sparklingly furious … it has a profoundly positive message’ Richard Mabey, Telegraph ‘This haunting tribute … is a pleasure to read’ Financial Times\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43201310523570,"sku":"9780008534431","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780008534431.jpg?v=1785658951"},{"product_id":"9781841155012","title":"Postcards","description":"This is story of Loyal Blood, a man who spends a lifetime on the run from a crime so terrible that it renders him forever incapable of touching a woman.The odyssey begins on a freezing Vermont hillside in 1944 and propels Blood across the American West for forty years. Denied love and unable to settle, he lives a hundred different lives: mining gold, growing beans, hunting fossils, trapping, prospecting for uranium and ranching. His only contact with his past is through a series of postcards he sends home – not realising that in his absence disaster has befallen his family, and their deep-rooted connection with the land has been severed with devastating consequences…‘Postcards’ was Annie Proulx’s first novel, which received huge acclaim and marked the launch of an outstanding literary career. Her works include short story collections ‘Bad Dirt’, ‘Close Range’ (featuring ‘Brokeback Mountain’) and novels such as ‘The Shipping News’ and ‘Accordion Crimes’.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43205534286002,"sku":"9781841155012","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781841155012_7bd551b8-4586-4430-aa89-0ab019b654f1.jpg?v=1786028166"},{"product_id":"9781857022421","title":"The Shipping News","description":"\u003cp\u003eWINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE FOR FICTION 1994WINNER OF THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD 1993‘A grand, inimitable writer’ OBSERVER\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘Heartwarming, humorous and poignant’ SUNDAY TIMES\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhat we have to get over, somehow we do. Even the worst things. Quoyle has endured a life of disappointment. A failed journalist and now a failed husband, he finds himself trapped in a loveless marriage to an unfaithful woman who despises him. When his wife is killed in a car accident, Quoyle makes the rash decision to retreat with his two daughters to their dilapidated, ancestral home on the remote island of Newfoundland. As three generations of his family cobble together new lives there amongst the unpredictable forces of nature and small town life, Quoyle confronts his private demons and is forced to chart a new course.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWinner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, The Shipping News is a rousing reminder of the power of second chances and the importance of finding your place in the world.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘A fierce elegy for a world of weatherbeaten fishermen and cold winters’ INDEPENDENT\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘Proulx excels at portraying the huge struggles and small hopes of ordinary people’ LISSA EVANS, author of V for Victory\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘A reminder that uprooting one’s life is not only for the young and starry-eyed’ C PAM ZHANG, author of Land of Milk and Honey\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43205579538610,"sku":"9781857022421","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781857022421.jpg?v=1786029311"},{"product_id":"9780007151523","title":"That Old Ace in the Hole","description":"A brilliant novel from Pulitzer Prize-winning Annie Proulx, author of ‘The Shipping News’ and ‘Brokeback Mountain’.‘That Old Ace in the Hole’ is a richly textured story of one man's struggle to make good in the inhospitable ranch country of the Texas panhandle, told with razor-sharp wit and a masterly sense of place.Some folks in the Texas panhandle do not like hog farms. But Bob Dollar, the newly hired hog site scout for Global Pork Rind, intends to do his job. Bob must contend with tough men and women like ancient Freda Beautyrooms, who controls a ranch he covets, and Ace Crouch, the windmiller who defies the hog farms. As Bob settles in at La Von Fronk’s bunkhouse and lends a hand at Cy Frease’s Old Dog Café, he is forced to question everything.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56219796767093,"sku":"9780007151523","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780007151523_47bc763c-bca0-45d7-b72e-2db0d4a2ee8c.jpg?v=1785658909"},{"product_id":"9780007198870","title":"Bad Dirt","description":"\u003cp\u003eA remarkable collection of short stories set in Wyoming from the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of ‘The Shipping News’ and ‘Brokeback Mountain’.\u003c\/p\u003e          \u003cp\u003e‘Bad Dirt’ is filled with the vivid and willful characters for which Proulx has become known. Each story occupies a community or landscape described in rich and robust language, with an eye for detail unparalleled in American fiction.\u003c\/p\u003e          \u003cp\u003eIn ‘The Contest’, the men of Elk Tooth, Wyoming, vow to put aside their razors for two seasons and wait to see who has the longest beard come the 4th of July. Deb Sipple, the moving protagonist of ‘That Trickle Down Effect’, finds that his opportunism – and his smoking habit – lead to a massive destruction. And ‘What Kind of Furniture Would Jesus Pick?’ is the story of Gilbert Wolfscale, whose rabid devotion to his ranch drives off his wife and sons.\u003c\/p\u003e          \u003cp\u003eProulx displays her wit in every story of this stunning collection, as well as her knowledge of the West, of history, of ranching and of farming. Her profound sympathy for characters who must use sheer will and courage to make it in tough territory makes this collection extraordinarily compelling.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56219992752501,"sku":"9780007198870","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780007198870_8ae031ba-0a82-4c6f-90de-4772bea97fe9.jpg?v=1785658711"},{"product_id":"9780007205585","title":"Close Range","description":"The book behind Ang Lee's Oscar-winning film, Brokeback Mountain, which celebrates its 20th anniversary in 2025.‘These are tales we can almost feel in our bones’ SUNDAY TIMESA collection of short stories inspired by the harsh and unforgiving landscape of Wyoming, from the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Shipping News. Originally published in The New Yorker in 1997, Proux's short story, 'Brokeback Mountain' is set in the beautiful, wild landscape of Wyoming where cowboys live as they have done for generations. Hard, lonely lives in an unforgiving country. Jack Twist and Ennis del Mar are two ranch hands, glad to have found each other’s company where none had been expected. But companionship becomes something else on Brokeback Mountain, something not looked for – an intimacy neither can forget.In 2005, ‘Brokeback Mountain’ was made into an Academy Award-winning film by Ang Lee, and starred Heath Ledger, Jake Gyllenhaal, Michelle Williams and Anne Hathaway.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56220153839989,"sku":"9780007205585","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780007205585_3bf7da8f-0c37-4931-bdcf-711e97ee84aa.jpg?v=1785658748"},{"product_id":"9780008706197","title":"Close Range","description":"\u003cp\u003eFrom the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Shipping News, a collection of short stories inspired by the harsh and unforgiving landscape of Wyoming. If he does not force his attention on it, it might stoke the day, rewarm that old, cold time on the mountain when they owned the world and nothing seemed wrong.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eInspired by the brutal and magnificent landscape of Wyoming, this is one of the most celebrated short story collections of our time.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn ‘Brokeback Mountain’, an affair between two cowboys survives everything but the world's violent intolerance, while other stories chart desperation, hard times and unlikely elation. Annie Proulx invests each with an intelligence and black humour that transforms them into something new and surprising in their exploration of the unbreakable bond between a people and their land. From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Shipping News, Brokeback Mountain confirms Annie Proulx’s status as one of the most powerful and accomplished voices in contemporary American fiction.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56222159667573,"sku":"9780008706197","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780008706197_96e28dec-1e68-45be-8357-cde85cb8d9de.jpg?v=1785658632"},{"product_id":"9781839042485","title":"Brokeback Mountain","description":"'I been lookin at people on the street. This happen a other people? What the hell do they do?'Wyoming, 1963. A wild, unforgiving land where people live simple, unforgiving lives.   When ranch hands Ennis and Jack take seasonal jobs on the isolated Brokeback Mountain, they find companionship in each other. And then they find something more.   Brokeback Mountain tells the heartbreaking tale of an irresistible and hidden love spanning twenty years, and its tragic consequences. Based on a short story by Annie Proulx, this stage adaptation by Ashley Robinson, with songs by Dan Gillespie Sells, opened at @sohoplace in London's West End in 2023. It was directed by Jonathan Butterell, and featured Mike Faist and Lucas Hedges as Jack and Ennis, with Eddi Reader performing the songs.   As Annie Proulx said of the adaptation, 'Brokeback Mountain has been recreated in several different forms, each with its own distinctive moods and impact. Ashley's script is fresh and deeply moving, opening sight lines not visible in the original nor successive treatments.'","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56308057211253,"sku":"9781839042485","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781839042485_a7ceab78-e626-443e-b37c-3056343487f1.jpg?v=1786027984"},{"product_id":"9781841150765","title":"Close Range","description":"From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of ‘The Shipping News’ comes a collection of short stories inspired by the harsh and unforgiving landscape of Wyoming.Throughout the collection, Annie Proulx invests these stories with an intelligence and black humour that transforms them into something new and surprising. In one story, a slight young man defies his mother’s insults to become a rodeo star, while in another, an octogenarian finds himself drawn back to the ranch that he quit decades before – against his better judgement. Elsewhere, Proulx demonstrates her taste for the macabre in a grisly tale of bad weather, gambling and amputation set a hundred years ago.Inventive, compassionate and wildly funny, these marvellous stories explore the unbreakable bond between a people and their land.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56308292452725,"sku":"9781841150765","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781841150765_e77e9a03-9797-45ef-86d1-3c970bd8eb2a.jpg?v=1786028142"},{"product_id":"9781857025750","title":"Accordion Crimes","description":"The third novel from the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of ‘The Shipping News’, ‘Accordion Crimes’ spans generations, continents and a century and confirms the hallucinatory power of Proulx’s writing.‘Accordion Crimes’ is a masterpiece of story-telling that spans a century and a continent. It opens in 1890 in Sicily, when an accordion-maker and his son, carrying little more than his finest button accordion, begin their voyage to the teeming, violent port of New Orleans. Within a year, the accordion-maker is murdered by an anti-Italian lynch mob, but his instrument carries the novel into another community of immigrants: German-Americans founding a new town in South Dakota. Moving from South Dakota to Texas, from Montana to Maine, the nine instantly compelling and intricately connected sections of the novel illuminate the lives of the founders of a nation, descendants of Mexicans, Poles, Germans, Irish, Scots and Franco-Canadians. Through the music of the accordion they express their fantasies, sorrows and exuberance.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56308535099765,"sku":"9781857025750","price":14.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781857025750_fdf2326c-756e-46bb-ba99-6b989ab89712.jpg?v=1786029316"},{"product_id":"9780008831325","title":"Annie Proulx Stories","description":"‘A major event … anyone reading these stories will discover a new awe for the mystery of human experience’ YIYUN LIFrom one of the greatest writers of our time, Annie Proulx, comes a sweeping collection of her most celebrated short stories, alongside three new stories, gathered together for the first time.In these stories, Annie Proulx delves into the lives of characters marked by loneliness, violence, desperation and the wrong kinds of love. Across the bracing landscapes of the American West, New England and New Foundland in Canada, we meet rodeo riders and cowboys, ranch and rural workers and down and out drifters. In her most acclaimed story, ‘Brokeback Mountain’, adapted into an award-winning film, a passionate affair between two cowboys survives everything but the world’s intolerance. In each tale, we witness the hard times and unlikely elation of those who feel tied to the land, or are desperate to escape it.Spanning nearly thirty years and drawn from Proulx’s four collections, Annie Proulx Stories gathers her finest and best-loved stories together for the first time. Proulx’s titles alone announce the singular genius of a grimly witty and unflinchingly humane writer: ‘Tits up in a Ditch’; ‘What Kind of Furniture Would Jesus Pick’; ‘People in Hell Just Want a Drink of Water’.Complete with three never before collected stories, this beautifully designed new volume confirms her as a master of the form and celebrates one of the greatest American writers at work today. It will be treasured by existing fans and a new generation of readers alike.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56999054836085,"sku":"9780008831325","price":20.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780008831325.jpg?v=1786032955"},{"product_id":"fine-just-way-it-is-pb","title":"Fine Just the Way It Is","description":"The fantastic new collection of stories from the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of ‘The Shipping News’ and ‘Brokeback Mountain’.‘Fine Just The Way It Is’ marks Annie Proulx's return to the Wyoming of ‘Brokeback Mountain’ and the familiar cast of hardy, unsentimental prairie folk. The stories are cast over centuries, and capture the voices and lives of the settlers this sagebrushed and weatherworn country has known, from the native Indian tribes to the modern day ranch owners and politicians, and their cowboy forebears.In ‘A Family Man’, an old man nearing the end of his life unburdens himself of the weighty family secrets that were his father’s unwelcome legacy. ‘Them Old Cowboy Songs’ follows Archie and Rosie, a young pioneer couple, and their hardships in their attempt to homestead in the exposed wintry expanses of the prairie, and ‘Testimony of the Donkey’ finds a young international couple, Marc and Caitlin, struggling with much more modern concerns, and confronting uncertainty as their relationship comes to its end.These are stories of desperation and hard times, often marked by an inescapable sadness, set in a landscape both brutal and magnificent. Enlivened by folk tales, flights of fancy, and details of ranch and rural work, they juxtapose Wyoming’s traditional character and attitudes – confrontation of tough problems, prejudice, persistence in the face of difficulty – with the more benign values of the new west. These are bold, elegant and memorable pieces, and once more confirm Annie Proulx as one of the most talented, unique short story writers in the language.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57466559988085,"sku":"9780007269747","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780007269747.jpg?v=1785654618"}],"url":"https:\/\/backstory.london\/collections\/author-annie-proulx.oembed","provider":"Backstory","version":"1.0","type":"link"}