

"Truly original and touching, Remarkably Bright Creatures is a story of family, community, and optimism in spite of darkness. I don't know how Shelby Van Pelt managed to make this uncommon tale sing so beautifully, but sing it does, and I defy you to put it down once you've started."-Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney, author of Good Company and The Nest " Remarkably Bright Creatures is the rarest of feats: a book that manages to be wry and wise, charming and surprising, and features one of the most intriguing and satisfying characters I've encountered in fiction in a very long time-Marcellus the Octopus.

Shelby Van Pelt makes good on this wild conceit, somehow making me love a misanthropic octopus, but her writing is so finely tuned that it's a natural element of a larger story about family, about loss, and the electricity of something found."-Kevin Wilson, author of Nothing to See Here

" Remarkably Bright Creatures is a beautiful examination of how loneliness can be transformed, cracked open, with the slightest touch from another living thing. She's created a perfect story with imperfect characters, that is so heartwarming, so mysterious, and so completely absorbing, you won't be able to put it down because when you're not reading this book you'll be hugging it." -Jamie Ford, author of The Many Daughters of Afong Moy and The Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet "Shelby Van Pelt has done the impossible.

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. And now Marcellus must use every trick his old invertebrate body can muster to unearth the truth for her before it's too late. 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.Įver the detective, Marcellus deduces what happened the night Tova's son disappeared. Tova becomes acquainted with curmudgeonly Marcellus, a giant Pacific octopus living at the aquarium. 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. " Remarkably Bright Creatures is a beautiful examination of how loneliness can be transformed, cracked open, with the slightest touch from another living thing." - Kevin Wilson, author of Nothing to See Hereįor 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 octopusĪfter Tova Sullivan's husband died, she began working the night shift at the Sowell Bay Aquarium, mopping floors and tidying up.
