Pilgrim at Tinker Creek

The Pulitzer Prize-winning novel about the remarkable year one woman spent in Virginia’s Roanoke Valley—now available in a limited Olive Edition.

“A remarkable psalm of terror and celebration.”—Time

Pilgrim at Tinker Creek is the story of a dramatic year in Virginia's Roanoke Valley. Annie Dillard sets out to see what she can see. What she sees are astonishing incidents of "beauty tangled in a rapture with violence."

Her personal narrative highlights one year's exploration on foot in the Virginia region through which Tinker Creek runs. In the summer, Dillard stalks muskrats in the creek and contemplates wave mechanics; in the fall, she watches a monarch butterfly migration and dreams of Arctic caribou. She tries to con a coot; she collects pond water and examines it under a microscope. She unties a snake skin, witnesses a flood, and plays King of the Meadow with a field of grasshoppers. The result is an exhilarating tale of nature and its seasons.

Limited Edition

“I had been my whole life a bell, and never knew it until at that moment I was lifted and struck.”

“A remarkable psalm of terror and celebration.” - Time magazine

“This book of wonder is one of the most truly beautiful books of this or any season. . . . A triumph.” - Publishers Weekly

"Spirited and gale-force. . . . The best thing is her glee, a pied-piperish glee at being in the world, which she invokes better than anyone else." - The Guardian

“One of the most distinctive voices in American letters today.” - Boston Globe

"With Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, we suddenly find ourselves in the presence of an ecstatic and visionary genius. We are still there." - Geoff Dyer