Remarkably Bright Creatures.jpg
Remarkably Bright Creatures.jpg

Remarkably Bright Creatures: A Novel by Shelby Van Pelt

from $11.99
Hardcover:

AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

Now a Netflix Film

A Read With Jenna Today Show Book Club Pick!

NAMED A BEST BOOK OF SUMMER by: Chicago Tribune The View Southern Living * USA Today

“Remarkably Bright Creatures [is] an ultimately feel-good but deceptively sensitive debut. . . . Memorable and tender.” — Washington Post

For fans of A Man Called Ove, a charming, witty and compulsively readable exploration of friendship, reckoning, and hope that traces a widow’s unlikely connection with a giant Pacific octopus

After Tova Sullivan’s husband died, she began working the night shift at the Sowell Bay Aquarium, mopping floors and tidying up. Keeping busy has always helped her cope, which she’s been doing since her eighteen-year-old son, Erik, mysteriously vanished on a boat in Puget Sound over thirty years ago.

Tova becomes acquainted with curmudgeonly Marcellus, a giant Pacific octopus living at the aquarium. Marcellus knows more than anyone can imagine but wouldn’t dream of lifting one of his eight arms for his human captors—until he forms a remarkable friendship with Tova.

Ever the detective, Marcellus deduces what happened the night Tova’s son disappeared. And now Marcellus must use every trick his old invertebrate body can muster to unearth the truth for her before it’s too late.

Shelby Van Pelt’s debut novel is a gentle reminder that sometimes taking a hard look at the past can help uncover a future that once felt impossible.

AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

Now a Netflix Film

A Read With Jenna Today Show Book Club Pick!

NAMED A BEST BOOK OF SUMMER by: Chicago Tribune The View Southern Living * USA Today

“Remarkably Bright Creatures [is] an ultimately feel-good but deceptively sensitive debut. . . . Memorable and tender.” — Washington Post

For fans of A Man Called Ove, a charming, witty and compulsively readable exploration of friendship, reckoning, and hope that traces a widow’s unlikely connection with a giant Pacific octopus

After Tova Sullivan’s husband died, she began working the night shift at the Sowell Bay Aquarium, mopping floors and tidying up. Keeping busy has always helped her cope, which she’s been doing since her eighteen-year-old son, Erik, mysteriously vanished on a boat in Puget Sound over thirty years ago.

Tova becomes acquainted with curmudgeonly Marcellus, a giant Pacific octopus living at the aquarium. Marcellus knows more than anyone can imagine but wouldn’t dream of lifting one of his eight arms for his human captors—until he forms a remarkable friendship with Tova.

Ever the detective, Marcellus deduces what happened the night Tova’s son disappeared. And now Marcellus must use every trick his old invertebrate body can muster to unearth the truth for her before it’s too late.

Shelby Van Pelt’s debut novel is a gentle reminder that sometimes taking a hard look at the past can help uncover a future that once felt impossible.

  • Publisher: Ecco/HarperCollins

    Title: Remarkably Bright Creatures: A Novel

    Author: Shelby Van Pelt

    On Sale Date: May 3, 2022

    ISBN 13: 9780063204157

    ISBN 10: 0063204150

    Format: Hardcover

    Retail Price: $29.99

    BISAC: Fiction / Literary

    Page Count: 368

    Dimensions: 9" H x 6" W x 1.2" T

    Weight: 1.1 lb

  • Shelby Van Pelt lives in the Pacific Northwest, the same misty corner of the country where she set her debut novel. Remarkably Bright Creatures spent years on bestseller lists after readers and booksellers fell for it one recommendation at a time, and it’s now in development as a Netflix film. Van Pelt has a gift for finding warmth in unlikely places — including, it turns out, the mind of a cranky octopus.

  • Critics are calling it tender, sensitive, and memorable:

    • "[Remarkably Bright Creatures is] an ultimately feel-good but deceptively sensitive debut.... Memorable and tender." — Washington Post

    • Named a Best Book of Summer by Chicago Tribune, The View, Southern Living, and USA Today

    • A Read With Jenna Today Show Book Club Pick

    • An instant New York Times bestseller, now in development as a Netflix film

This book is for you if

  • You’ve ever leaned on routine to get through grief.

  • You love a slow-burn mystery more than a twisty thriller.

  • You want a narrator who happens to be a bad-tempered octopus.

  • You believe the right friend can show up in the most unlikely shape.

  • You’re a sucker for a small-town cast of quietly complicated people.

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