The History of Sound: Stories
NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE STARRING PAUL MESCAL AND JOSH O’CONNOR
Winner of the Story Prize Spotlight Award • Shortlisted for the 2025 Mark Twain Award • Longlisted for the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction & the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction
An ALA Notable Book • One of NPR’s “Books We Love” • One of the Chicago Tribune’s 10 Best Books of 2024 • Best Short Fiction, Kirkus Reviews
“Polyphonic fiction. . . . A reminder of the short story’s power. . . . The History of Sound marks Shattuck as one of the form’s brightest lights. . . . A terrific writer. . . . Deeply resonant.” —The Boston Globe
“Exquisitely crafted, deeply imagined, exhilaratingly diverse, The History of Sound places Ben Shattuck firmly among the very finest of our storytellers.”
—Geraldine Brooks, New York Times bestselling author of Horse
“Magnificent. . . . Poignant. . . . Exquisite.” —Publishers Weekly
A stunning collection of interconnected stories set in New England, exploring how the past is often misunderstood and how history, family, heartache, and desire can echo over centuries
In twelve luminous stories set across three centuries, The History of Sound examines the unexpected ways the past returns to us and how love and loss are entwined and transformed over generations. In Ben Shattuck's ingenious collection, each story has a companion story, which contains a revelation about the previous, paired story. Mysteries and murders are revealed, history is refracted, and deep emotional connections are woven through characters and families.
The haunting title story recalls the journey of two men who meet around a piano in a smoky, dim bar, only to spend a summer walking the Maine woods collecting folk songs in the shadow of the First World War, forever marked by the odyssey. Decades later, in another story, a woman discovers the wax cylinders recorded that fateful summer while cleaning out her new house in Maine. Shattuck’s inventive, exquisite stories transport readers from 1700s Nantucket to the contemporary woods of New Hampshire and beyond—into landscapes both enduring and unmistakably modern. Memories, artifacts, paintings, and journals resurface in surprising and poignant ways among evocative beaches, forests, and orchards, revealing the secrets, misunderstandings, and love that linger across centuries.
Written with breathtaking humanity and humor, The History of Sound is a love letter to New England, a radiant conversation between past and present, and a moving meditation on the abiding search for home.
Winner of the Story Prize Spotlight Award • Shortlisted for the 2025 Mark Twain Award • Longlisted for the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction & the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction
An ALA Notable Book • One of NPR’s “Books We Love” • One of the Chicago Tribune’s 10 Best Books of 2024 • Best Short Fiction, Kirkus Reviews
“Polyphonic fiction. . . . A reminder of the short story’s power. . . . The History of Sound marks Shattuck as one of the form’s brightest lights. . . . A terrific writer. . . . Deeply resonant.” —The Boston Globe
“Exquisitely crafted, deeply imagined, exhilaratingly diverse, The History of Sound places Ben Shattuck firmly among the very finest of our storytellers.”
—Geraldine Brooks, New York Times bestselling author of Horse
“Magnificent. . . . Poignant. . . . Exquisite.” —Publishers Weekly
A stunning collection of interconnected stories set in New England, exploring how the past is often misunderstood and how history, family, heartache, and desire can echo over centuries
In twelve luminous stories set across three centuries, The History of Sound examines the unexpected ways the past returns to us and how love and loss are entwined and transformed over generations. In Ben Shattuck's ingenious collection, each story has a companion story, which contains a revelation about the previous, paired story. Mysteries and murders are revealed, history is refracted, and deep emotional connections are woven through characters and families.
The haunting title story recalls the journey of two men who meet around a piano in a smoky, dim bar, only to spend a summer walking the Maine woods collecting folk songs in the shadow of the First World War, forever marked by the odyssey. Decades later, in another story, a woman discovers the wax cylinders recorded that fateful summer while cleaning out her new house in Maine. Shattuck’s inventive, exquisite stories transport readers from 1700s Nantucket to the contemporary woods of New Hampshire and beyond—into landscapes both enduring and unmistakably modern. Memories, artifacts, paintings, and journals resurface in surprising and poignant ways among evocative beaches, forests, and orchards, revealing the secrets, misunderstandings, and love that linger across centuries.
Written with breathtaking humanity and humor, The History of Sound is a love letter to New England, a radiant conversation between past and present, and a moving meditation on the abiding search for home.
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Community Reviews
thenextgoodbook.com
What’s it about?
This collection of twelve short stories takes place in New England. Each story is loosely paired with another, and the second story illuminates the earlier story. We meet characters from three different centuries and see how the past has influenced the present.
What did it make me think about?
The structure and writing in this collection are really special.
Should I read it?
This was such a pleasant book to read. It seems like a book that you should read sitting in front of a fireplace during a blizzard- when you would have time to savor each story. The writing was descriptive, the way the book was structured was unique, and what it had to say about how the past influenced the present was so thought-provoking. I know pleasant sounds less than enthusiastic, but I really enjoyed these stories and this is the word that keeps coming to my mind. So I highly recommend this book of short stories because “history is personal, even when it isn’t”.
Quote-
“But you should have a little pain in your life- humans are meant to have a little pain. Endings, I suppose, like seasons, like winters. That’s where all the good stuff is. Ripped apart, so you can feel the mending. There’s nothing like it. I wouldn’t wish an uneventful life on my worst enemy.”
What’s it about?
This collection of twelve short stories takes place in New England. Each story is loosely paired with another, and the second story illuminates the earlier story. We meet characters from three different centuries and see how the past has influenced the present.
What did it make me think about?
The structure and writing in this collection are really special.
Should I read it?
This was such a pleasant book to read. It seems like a book that you should read sitting in front of a fireplace during a blizzard- when you would have time to savor each story. The writing was descriptive, the way the book was structured was unique, and what it had to say about how the past influenced the present was so thought-provoking. I know pleasant sounds less than enthusiastic, but I really enjoyed these stories and this is the word that keeps coming to my mind. So I highly recommend this book of short stories because “history is personal, even when it isn’t”.
Quote-
“But you should have a little pain in your life- humans are meant to have a little pain. Endings, I suppose, like seasons, like winters. That’s where all the good stuff is. Ripped apart, so you can feel the mending. There’s nothing like it. I wouldn’t wish an uneventful life on my worst enemy.”
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