Turtle Diary

By Russell Hoban

Book Overview

Two lonely Londoners bond over a plan to free the sea turtles at the city zoo in this touching novel from a cult-favorite author who has drawn comparisons to J.D. Salinger and Kurt Vonnegut.

A wise and touching classic that "crackles with witty detail, mordant intelligence and self-deprecating irony," from the author of Riddley Walker (Time)

Life in a city can be atomizing, isolating. And it certainly is for William G. and Neaera H., the strangers at the center of Russell Hoban's surprisingly heartwarming novel Turtle Diary.

William, a clerk at a used bookstore, lives in a rooming house after a divorce that has left him without home or family. Neaera is a successful writer of children's books, who, in her own estimation, "looks like the sort of spinster who doesn't keep cats and is not a vegetarian. Looks...like a man's woman who hasn't got a man."

Entirely unknown to each other, they are both drawn to the turtle tank at the London Zoo with "minds full of turtle thoughts," wondering how the turtles might be freed. And then comes the day when Neaera walks into William's bookstore, and together they form an unlikely partnership to make what seemed a crazy dream become a reality.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1590176464
• ISBN13: 9781590176467
• Release Date: June 2013
• Publisher: New York Review of Books
• Length: 208 Pages
• Weight: 0.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 4.6" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

Delightful and profound too

So glad I discovered this author. I intend to read all his works and also buy several copies of this book for Christmas presents. This writer has a tremendous mind, such colorful insights into humanity. Read it slowly, so you appreciate all the words.

Buy This Book!!

I love to read for the purpose of being transported to another place, time, or reality. This book did just that and even though it is not always a happy place, or reality, it is always compelling. I was very sorry for it to end. I wanted and still want to know more of William and Neaera!!! You can pick this title up, in hardcover form, for just a penny! It is worth infinitely more!!

Wonderful little book

I picked this book up on a whim. It was published in 1975 and is structured simply, with alternating diary entries from the whimsical souls of William G and Neara H, bookseller and children's author respectively. These are two people trapped within themselves, depressed and isolated, and so inured to their own routines that they are slowly being choked alive. Until they go to the London aquarium and, separately, become aware of the turtles there, the magnificent turtles that must eventually be set free. Their chance encounter...and growing awareness of one another's intentions...set the stage for a revolutionary act. This is a quiet, often very funny, slow-paced, but very rewarding book that I enjoyed greatly. It's about two peoples' interior world, and how an exterior action frees them from their own inertia. I absolutely loved it. In a world of hysterically touted, often badly written books, this little gem is an absolute keeper. Set in London in a different decade (the 70's), I enjoyed reading about the city and the times as well (particularly hysterical is an evening William G. spends at a party held by a "rebirther"). I was sad to turn the last page. No higher praise can you give a good read.