Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt
Fiction
For readers who enjoy: Heart-warming, relationship focused reads; stories about family, community, and overcoming loneliness and loss; and charming and wise characters.
What it’s about: Marcellus is a misanthrope, but after 1299 days of captivity, who could blame him? Marcellus is a giant Pacific octopus, an unwilling resident of a small-town aquarium in Washington state, a keen observer of the humans around him, and one of the narrators of this quirky and heartwarming first novel. The one person Marcellus does like is Tova, the grieving widow who cleans the aquarium every night—she shares her deepest thoughts with him, and on more than one occasion has rescued him when his secret nightly raids on other tanks have gotten him into trouble. Tova is mourning the recent loss of her husband as well as the disappearance of her son more than 30 years earlier. When newcomer Cameron—in town seeking his long-lost father—joins Tova on the night shift, Marcellus realizes that his two human friends may be able to help one another.
Reviewers say: “Van Pelt has written an irresistibly wonderful, warm, funny, heartbreaking first novel, full of gentle people (and one octopus) bravely powering through their individual scars” (Library Journal).
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