Pulitzer Prize Fiction Winner
The Stone Diaries
by Carol Shields
Summary
A fictional autobiography that traces the life of Daisy Goodwill Flett from her birth in a Manitoba kitchen in 1905 through marriage, motherhood, gardening columns, and old age in Florida. Shields frames the book as a constructed archive, complete with family trees and photographs, to ask how anyone can tell an ordinary woman's life and whose voice gets to tell it. The novel earns admiration for its formal inventiveness and its quiet feminist power.
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Historical Context & Significance
Shields was born in America but lived in Canada. The book stands out for including artifacts like family trees and fake photographs.