The Shadow Catcher
ABOUT
THE BOOK
Narrated in the first person by a reimagined writer named Marianne Wiggins, the novel begins in Hollywood, where top producers are eager to sentimentalize the complicated life of Edward Curtis as a sunny biopic: “It’s got the outdoors. It’s got adventure. It’s got the do-good element.” Yet, contrary to Curtis’s esteemed public reputation as servant to his nation, the artist was an absent husband and disappearing father. Jump to the next generation, when Marianne’s own father, John Wiggins (1920-1970), would live and die in equal thrall to the impulse of wanderlust.
Were the two men running from or running to? Dodging the false beacons of memory and legend, Marianne amasses disparate clues — photographs and hospital records, newspaper clippings and a rare white turquoise bracelet — to recover those moments that went unrecorded, “to hear the words only the silent ones can speak.” The Shadow Catcher, fueled by the great American passions for love and land and family, chases the silhouettes of our collective history into the bright light of the present.
NOMINATING LIBRARY COMMENTS
The Wiggins of the novel is commissioned to write a screenplay for a film on the life of Edward Curtis – a national hero. But his fame had a price, which had to be paid by friends and relatives.
Creative use of language, structure, point of view and history tells the story of photographer Edward Curtis, early 20th century portrayer of iconic American West and Native Americans. Wiggins intertwines characters and stories to give depth to the photographs, which both capture and warp reality.