Author | M. K. Wren |
---|---|
Language | English |
Genre | post-apocalyptic fiction |
Publisher | Ballantine Books |
Publication date | February 3, 1990 |
Publication place | United States |
Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
ISBN | 0-345-36341-8 (first edition, hardback) |
OCLC | 20015052 |
813/.54 20 | |
LC Class | PS3573.R43 G5 1990 |
A Gift Upon the Shore is a post-apocalyptic fiction novel by American author M. K. Wren and published by Ballantine Books in 1990. The story follows two American women, an artist and a writer, who survive pandemic, the collapse of civilization, and a deadly nuclear winter.
Set in the near future, A Gift traces the first generations to survive nuclear war and its aftermath. Writer Mary Hope and painter Rachel Morrow scratch out a meager existence on a farm called Amarna on the Oregon coast. They are determined to collect and preserve for a new civilization all the great books of western culture. Farther down the coast lives the Arkites, a fundamentalist group that denies all knowledge not found in the Bible. After a plague strikes the Arkites Mary agrees to take in a few survivors on the condition that she be allowed to educate the children as she sees fit. [1]
Publishers Weekly called the novel "unsparing but ultimately hopeful...Wren's post-nuclear world rings true, as do her compelling depictions of the subsistence-level daily life--the triumphs, the losses and the desperation." [2] Kirkus Reviews dubbed the novel as "Beautifully realized, with solid characters, but unoriginal, obvious, implausible, obtrusively symbolic, and far too slow in the development: more admirable than practical." [3] The Los Angeles Times commented: "This cautionary novel is scarier than anything by Stephen King or Clive Barker...Wren’s writing is clear and concise for the most part, though bordering on the mystic when it comes to her descriptions of the woods, and especially the ocean in its many moods." [4]
Martha Kay Renfroe was an American writer of mystery and science fiction. Renfroe, who published her works under the pseudonym M.K. Wren, was best known for her mystery series featuring the character Conan Flagg.
Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni is an Indian-born American author, poet, and the Betty and Gene McDavid Professor of Writing at the University of Houston Creative Writing Program. Her short story collection, Arranged Marriage, won an American Book Award in 1996. Two of her novels, as well as a short story were adapted into films.
Tod Goldberg is an American author and journalist best known for his novels Gangsters Don't Die (Counterpoint), Gangster Nation (Counterpoint), Gangsterland (Counterpoint) and Living Dead Girl, the popular Burn Notice series (Penguin/NAL) and the short story collection The Low Desert: Gangster Stories (Counterpoint).
Sonya Sones is an American poet and author. She has written seven young adult novels in verse and one novel in verse for adults. The American Library Association (ALA) has named her one of the most frequently challenged authors of the 21st century.
Catherine Ruth Jennings was an Australian poet, essayist, memoirist, and novelist.
Karen Karbo is an American novelist, non-fiction writer and journalist.
Galaxy Craze is a British-American novelist and former actress.
Padma Tiruponithura Venkatraman, also known as T. V. Padma, is an Indian-American author and scientist.
Death of a Hollow Man is a detective novel by English writer Caroline Graham published by Century in 1989. The story follows Chief Inspector Tom Barnaby investigating the murder of a stage actor during an ongoing play. It is the second volume in Graham's Chief Inspector Barnaby series, preceded by The Killings at Badger's Drift and followed by Death in Disguise. It has been adapted into an episode in the ITV drama Midsomer Murders.
Red Hen Press is an American non-profit press located in Pasadena, California, and specializing in the publication of poetry, literary fiction, and nonfiction. The press is a member of the Community of Literary Magazines and Presses, and was a finalist for the 2013 AWP Small Press Publisher Award. The press has been featured in Publishers Weekly,Kirkus Reviews, and Independent Publisher.
Amy Sarig King is an American writer of short fiction and young adult fiction. She is the recipient of the 2022 Margaret Edwards Award for her "significant and lasting contribution to young adult literature."
Leslie Schwartz is an American author and teacher of creative writing. She has published two novels, Jumping the Green and Angels Crest, the latter of which was made into a 2011 film, and The Lost Chapters, a memoir of her time in jail while recovering from alcoholism.
Margaret Thrash is an American writer of young adult fiction and memoirist, best known for her graphic novel memoir Honor Girl.
Mary Clearman Blew is an American non fiction writer.
Where the Line Bleeds is the debut novel by American writer Jesmyn Ward. It was published in 2008 by Agate Publishing.
The Great Alone is a semiautobiographical novel written by American author Kristin Hannah published by St. Martin's Press in 2018. The story follows the Allbright family's move to the Alaskan wilderness and the ensuing challenges they face there.
Michael Farris Smith is an American writer from Mississippi. As of 2023, Smith has published seven novels: The Hands of Strangers (2011), Rivers (2013), Desperation Road (2017), The Fighter (2018), Blackwood (2020), Nick (2021), and Salvage This World (2023).
Grand Union: Stories is a 2019 short story collection by Zadie Smith. It was published on 3 October 2019 by Hamish Hamilton, an imprint of Penguin Books.
The Adventure of the Peculiar Protocols: Adapted from the Journals of John H. Watson, M.D. is a Sherlock Holmes pastiche novel by Nicholas Meyer, published in 2019. It takes place after Meyer's other Holmes pastiches, The Seven-Per-Cent Solution, The West End Horror, and The Canary Trainer. It is Meyer's first Holmes pastiche in 26 years.
Philippa Dowding is a Canadian writer of children's literature, whose novel Firefly was the winner of the Governor General's Award for English-language children's literature at the 2021 Governor General's Awards.