''All Souls'' is a 2008 novel by American writer

Christine Schutt Christine Schutt, an American novelist and short story writer, has been a finalist for the National Book Award for Fiction and the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. She received her BA and MA from the University of Wisconsin–Madison and her MFA from Co ...

. The book takes place in New York City, and follows the lives of faculty and students at the fictional Siddons School.

Writing and composition

The novel draws from Schutt's experience as a teacher at an all-girls school in Manhattan. Since the book's publication, Schutt noted "types" from the school, Nightingale-Bamford, she would include if she were to rewrite it. ''All Souls'' was in part inspired by David Malouf's novel ''

Remembering Babylon ''Remembering Babylon'' is a book by David Malouf, published in 1993. It won the inaugural International Dublin Literary Award and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and the Miles Franklin Award. The novel covers themes of isolation, language ...

''. Despite perception that the novel " ushesthe boundaries of fiction" Schutt has said she did not intend for it to do so.

Plot

The novel follows Astra Dell and her classmates at Siddons School over the course of their senior year.

Reception

Critical reception

Maud Casey Maud Casey is an American novelist, and professor of creative writing at University of Maryland, College Park. Life She is the daughter of novelist John Casey. She graduated from University of Arizona with an M.F.A. She won a Guggenheim Fello ...

, writing for the ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'', referred to the novel as "refreshingly strange". Casey compared the novel favorably to the work of

Virginia Woolf Adeline Virginia Woolf (; ; 25 January 1882 28 March 1941) was an English writer, considered one of the most important modernist 20th-century authors and a pioneer in the use of stream of consciousness as a narrative device. Woolf was born i ...

, whose novels Schutt references in ''All Souls''. ''

Publishers Weekly ''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of B ...

'' criticized Schutt for not " oingenough with the familiar prep school setting to make the story resonate". In a review of Schutt's depiction of marriages, David Winters referred to the book's omniscient narrator as " ..lending a sense of distance" to the novel, in contrast with her earlier ''Nightwork'', which featured first person narration.

Honors

''All Souls'' was nominated for the

Pulitzer Prize for Fiction The Pulitzer Prize for Fiction is one of the seven American Pulitzer Prizes that are annually awarded for Letters, Drama, and Music. It recognizes distinguished fiction by an American author, preferably dealing with American life, published during ...

References

{{reflist 2008 American novels Novels set in New York City Novels set in high schools and secondary schools Harcourt (publisher) books English-language novels