Snapper

By: Brian Kimberling

Narrated by: MacLeod Andrews

NPR's Best Books of the Year 2013ELLE'S LETTRES READERS' PRIZE 2013O, the Oprah Magazine: 10 Titles to Pick Up NowVogue: “Strongest Debut Fictions of the Spring”Vanity Fair: “Hot Type”

A great, hilarious new voice in fiction: the poignant, all-too-human recollections of an affable bird researcher in backwater Indiana as he goes through a disastrous yet heartrening love affair with the place and its people.

Nathan Lochmueller studies birds for just enough money to live and learn on. He drives a glitter-festooned truck, the Gypsy Moth, and he is in love with Lola, a woman so free-spirited and mysterious she can break a man's heart with a sigh or a shrug. Around them swirls a remarkable cast of characters: the proprietor of Fast Eddie's Burgers, the genius behind "Thong Thursdays"; Uncle Dart, a Texan who brings his swagger to Indiana with profound and nearly devastating results; a snapping turtle with a taste for thumbs; a German Shepherd who howls backup vocals; and the very charismatic state of Indiana itself. And at the centre of it all: Nathan, creeping through the forest to observe the birds he loves, and coming to terms with the accidental turns his life has taken.

©2013 Brian Kimberling (P)2013 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

NPR's Best Books of the Year 2013

Elle's Lettres Readers' Prize 2013

O, the Oprah Magazine: 10 Titles to Pick Up Now

Vogue: “Strongest Debut Fictions of the Spring”

Vanity Fair: “Hot Type”

"Reading Brian Kimberling’s debut novel, Snapper, is a fascinating and disorienting experience. The protagonist is Nathan Lochmueller, a southern Indiana native, who makes a meager living observing the effect of climate change on the region’s songbirds. The single square mile of woods that composes his domain is really a metaphor for the region as a whole, and Lochmueller moves through it with a mixture of familiarity and bewilderment.... Like Indiana’s leaves, the colors of Kimberling’s book are vivid, often startling." (The Washington Post)

"Poignant as well as thought-provoking - a delightful departure from the ordinary.... It’s quite a feat, to keep readers reading on the strength of laughter. Kimberling...turns the trick effortlessly." (The Seattle Times)

Indiana

A sweet novel about a guy from Indiana and what he did with his life. I picked this book because it had ornithological information, but it is much more than that. I enjoyed Kimberling's style of writing. He kept me amused.