A Woman of Stone

by Todd James Pierce

Part literary travelogue, part ancestral history, A Woman of Stone pays homage to the mythology and history of the continent. It is the tale of Sam Brown, his famous grandmother, who goes missing while hiking across the Outback, and his mother who tries to fill the space left in her wake. A Woman of Stone delves into the lives of the Browns, their past and their present all the while examining the universal hold and effect that a country can have on an individual. Commenting on this Pierce states, "This was something I didn't understand before I lived in Australia—the way a national culture can shape a person. When I first moved to Australia, I loved being there, learning the nuances of the culture, reading their books. But after being there for six months or so, I began to crave contact with other Americans who were living in Sydney. Of course our accents gave us away. But beyond that, we were beginning to understand how we carried our country with us even though were not presently living there." A Woman of Stone heralds an introduction to an astute new author; one who has a keen understanding of people, no matter which land they may come from.

221 pages, Paperback

First published September 29, 2006

About the author

The author of the novel, The Australia Stories and the story collection, Newsworld, which won the Drue Heinz Literature Prize and was a finalist for the John Gardner Book Award and the Paterson Prize. His work has been published in Fiction, The Georgia Review, Harvard Review, The Gettysburg Review, Indiana Review, The Iowa Review, The Missouri Review, North American Review, Shenandoah, The Sun, Virginia Quarterly Review, and Willow Springs. He lives in a little town called Orcutt (just north of Santa Barbara, California) and co-directs the Creative Writing program at Cal Poly University. Aside from his work in creative writing, over the past decade, he has interviewed over 100 men and women who worked in animation and outdoor amusements during the 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s.

Reviews

[Awallens · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is multi-layered, and the writing is just gorgeous. It's a book I'll re-read again in several years and get something new out of it then. It's the type of book you read at different points in your life and walk away with something different each time. Having lived in Australia for a year, I found myself nodding my head when Sam talked about certain things. I feel a kinship with Sam, though my family was not divided between the states and Australia. This is an unforgettable book, though I lack the words to explain why.