First published 2002
Mrs. Moro sits in the back seat as Tuttle Albers drives her to the same stretch of beach each day. She walks the sand searching for white pelicans that may never come. Tuttle waits in the car, reading the Japanese novels she loans him, until the day he meets a zoologist and everything shifts. Their story anchors this collection of eight tales where characters chase what they cannot have. Jenny Aloo, an Eskimo woman, believes her missing son's spirit lives inside a jukebox. A spurned lover tracks a woman for ten years as the world transforms around his obsession. Each character moves through their days carrying private hungers and impossible hopes. Norman places ordinary people in moments where their deepest needs surface, revealing how loneliness and desire shape the smallest choices.
Genres: short-stories, literary-fiction, contemporary
Vibes: intimate, lyrical, thought-provoking
Tropes: character-study, found-family
Setting: Beach, Japan
Period: Contemporary
216 pages · Paperback · Picador