E. Annie Proulx (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annie_Proulx) gives us the character of Quoyle, a hack journalist, whose wife Petal leaves him and is shortly after killed in a car accident. He moves with his two young daughters to his ancestral home in Newfoundland in search of a new beginning. This novel of 1993 deservedly won the Pulitzer Prize and The U.S. National Book Award.
Lasse Hallstrom treated us all to a glorious 2001 film adaptation (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120824/?ref_=sr_2) with Kevin Spacey as Quoyle, Julianne Moore as Wavey Prowse, and Judi Dench as Agnis Hamm. Spacey’s performance is particularly impressive as the down-at-heel and broken Quoyle.
368 pages in Sage Publications paperback edition.
ISBN 978-1857022421