The Shell Seekers

The Shell Seekers by Rosamunde Pilcher

I am a huge fan of another Pilcher book, Winter Solstice.  So when I heard someone mention that she is most known for her 1987 release, The Shell Seekers, I had to check it out.

The Premise:  The story is centered around the family of Penelope Keeling, a loving and slightly eccentric mother of three adult children.  The title of the book is the title of Penelope’s most prized possession, a painting in which she is one of the subjects, created by her father and given to her as a wedding present.  The painting, The Shell Seekers, obviously plays a starring role in the story line.

Each chapter of the book in some way focuses on one character, some of them we get to know well throughout the book, some we hear of once and never again. 

Even though written in 1987, this story aged well.  All the characters could easily be people you know. Some you wish to get to know better and some you would choose to avoid if you saw them at the grocery store.

It’s a long and meandering story, but I was sad to see it end.  I found myself thinking through how the characters were affected by other characters and by their own life situations. Pilcher really ‘gets’ people, personalities and relationships.