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The Hunters

claire messud

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Claire Messud's two exquisite short novellas, acclaimed for their subtlety, their insight and their dazzling prose, are destined to become masterpieces of twenty-first-century literature. Claire Messud's two brilliant novellas are exquisitely positioned: poised, subtle and perfect, they communicate with each other across expanses of silence like works of art. It is almost startling to encounter writing of this quality . . . This is masterly prose – modest, authentic, compassionate, interested and majestically complete . . . These two small masterpieces reflect and complement one another so as to form something larger, a work of tremendous scope and significance. I can think of few writers capable of such thrilling seriousness expressed with so lavish a gift’ Evening Standard ‘Messud proves to be as much an accomplished storyteller as an immaculate stylist . . . She is a mistress of parenthesis, the telling aside, the unspoken . . . With the short novel, Claire Messud, like Alice Munro, has found her ideal form’ Daily Telegraph Two short novels of remarkable power and artistry that outweigh works twice or thrice their size . . . They achieve their aim quite beautifully’ Financial Times ‘Messud is an expert storyteller. Her style is precise and illuminating, transforming the mundane into the unusual . . . dazzling’ Observer

200 pages, Paperback

First published January 1,2001
Literary awards
pen/faulkner award for fiction, 

This edition

Format
200 pages, Paperback
Published
May 18, 2003 by Picador
ISBN
9780330488150
ASIN
0330488155
Language
English

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About the author

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claire messud

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Claire Messud is an American novelist and literature and creative writing professor. She is best known as the author of the novel The Emperor's Children (2006).

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Community Reviews

Rating(4 / 5.0, 100 votes)
5 stars
32(32%)
4 stars
33(33%)
3 stars
35(35%)
2 stars
0(0%)
1 stars
0(0%)
100 reviews All reviews
Profile Image for Kimberly .
dinoguy1
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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Actually two brief novellas, I really liked the one called "A Simple Tale" for its depiction of Ukranian immigrant's life in America. The story called "The Hunters" was not quite as good, but fascinating in that the protagonist's gender was never revealed. I kept guessing different ways. She's a very good writer. If you're looking for something short, this would be a good read.
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mooglebot
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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There are actually two novellas included in my copy-The Hunters and A Simple Tale and, though they are quite different from eachother, they both possess such an eerie strangeness that make you contemplate them long after you finish. They are memorable in the same subtle sinking way that the characters themselves are memorable to other characters they meet within the novellas. A Simple Tale has a great deal to do with being a Displaced Person or peasant in the Ukraine around the time Hitler came to power. Our protagonist, who remembers her girlhood trauma tells us of her life at the labor camps then immigrating to Canada and starting a family there afterwards. It is just as much about pride, dignity, and family as it is about experiences and things that can never be truly wiped clean. We get a sense of Maria the caretaker and mother...Maria the proud peasant who has very strong opinions and we admire her even though she is strange herself and sometimes distant. I really appreciated another side of the story of the Holocaust and, while it's very important to learn about the persecution of the Jewish population, it seems that isn't the complete story which should be told. I really believe one of the only ways to prevent this atrocity from happening again is to understand all facets of it and this is one facet I hadn't really come across before.

Hunters is a much different sort of novella and takes place in England with a visiting American professor who wants a nice temporary home to write his novel about death. And, of course, he stumbles upon a strange woman who (like Maria in the first novel though quite different in terms of life experiences and personality) is a caretaker. Her problem, however, is that the people she keeps taking care of (elderly mainly) keep dying and so there's a sinking possibility she could be the cause of it that slowly gets planted in our heads and the head of the protagonist. This is a tricky one and there's quite a bit of symbolism between rabbits and Polaroids. The reader really has to examine the situation and the characters closely...I'd say more but I don't want to give anything away.


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yasinshehata
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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I liked the first novella, "A Simple Tale," very much but couldn't really get into the second one (for which the volume is named). That said, I finished the whole thing in a couple hours on a plane so certainly didn't dislike it.
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CaiusRocker
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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The audiobook was so nice I had to listen to it twice! The voice acting with the varying accents made this audiobook stand out, and i was simply blown away by the precision, the wittiness and the mastery of Messud’s writing. Upon my second go-around, I was able to pick up on even more intricate details that I missed the first time, and I still found myself bursting out laughing. In truth this is a 4.5 star book but 4 stars is just too low for this quality of writing.
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Urazoe
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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Best novellas I’ve read in quite a while. The writing is amazing. “A Simple Tale” is more straight forward in style. “The Hunters” leaves the reader guessing. Not much is known about the narrator and the subtle suspense keeps one reading to the end.
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