The Dive from Clausen's Pier

NATIONAL BESTSELLER - How much do we owe the people we love? Is it a sign of strength or weakness to walk away from someone in need? These questions lie at the heart of Ann Packer's intimate and emotionally thrilling novel.

"Packer knows just how to make a story build: the novel reveals a sure sense of pace and pitch, a brilliant ear for character . . . a searching emotional generosity." -The New York Times Book Review

At the age of twenty-three Carrie Bell has spent her entire life in Wisconsin, with the same best friend and the same dependable, easygoing, high school sweetheart. Now to her dismay she has begun to find this life suffocating and is considering leaving it-and Mike-behind. But when Mike is paralyzed in a diving accident, leaving seems unforgivable and yet more necessary than ever.

The Dive from Clausen's Pier animates this dilemma-and Carrie's startling response to it-with the narrative assurance, exacting realism, and moral complexity we expect from the very best fiction.

Author: Ann Packer
Publisher: Vintage
Published: 04/08/2003
Pages: 432
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.69lbs
Size: 8.04h x 5.22w x 0.91d
ISBN: 9780375727139

Accelerated Reader:
Reading Level: 5.4
Point Value: 22
Interest Level: Upper Grade
Quiz #/Name: 68500 / Dive from Clausen's Pier

Award: Book Sense Book of the Year Award - Nominee

Review Citation(s):
Booklist 04/01/2003 pg. 1388
New York Times 04/13/2003 pg. 28
Kliatt 07/01/2003 pg. 25
Library Journal 06/01/2004 pg. 201
Library Journal 08/01/2004 pg. 132

About the Author
Ann Packer is the author of two best-selling novels, Songs Without Words and The Dive from Clausen's Pier, the latter of which received a Great Lakes Book Award, an American Library Association Award, and the Kate Chopin Literary Award. Her short fiction and essays have appeared in The New Yorker, The Washington Post, Vogue, and Real Simple. Also the author of Mendocino and Other Stories, she lives in northern California with her family.