Citywide Reads 2009

 "Reading this [book] is like swimming in a braided river." -- Marianne Wiggins

In The Shadow Catcher, Marianne Wiggins combines fact with fiction, past with present, and words with images in the unconventional telling of two compelling stories, set nearly a century apart, yet seamlessly intertwined. In one narrative, a writer named Marianne Wiggins has written a novel, also titled The Shadow Catcher, about the photographer Edward S. Curtis, who came to fame through his attempts to photograph Native American people before they vanished from the American landscape. Wiggins’ story takes a turn when she is called to the deathbed of her father, a man she knows died when she was a child. In the other historic narrative, we follow the story of Clara Phillips as she journeys across America and into the life of Curtis, the enigmatic photographer she would marry.


Click here for our The Shadow Catcher resource guide (PDF).

If you liked The Shadow Catcher, you might like:

Shadow Catcher: The Life and
Work of Edward S. Curtis
by Laurie Lawlor

The Last Summer of the World
by Emily Mitchell

The Emigrants: A Novel
by W.G. Sebald

The Boy Who Loved Anne Frank
by Ellen Feldman