SOURCE: Levy, Claudia. “Carol Shields, Acclaimed Novelist, Dies.” Washington Post (18 July 2003): B7.

In the following obituary, Levy provides a brief overview of Shields's life and work.

Carol Shields, 68, whose empathetic and witty novels about the lives of ordinary people included the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Stone Diaries, died July 16 at her home in Victoria, B.C. She had breast cancer.

A native of Illinois who had lived in Canada since 1957, Mrs. Shields published her first novel at age 40. She soon became a respected author in her adopted country, but was relatively unknown in America until publication of The Stone Diaries, which won her international recognition, including the 1995 Pulitzer for fiction.

The book became a bestseller and won the National Book Critics Circle Award in the United States and the Governor General's Literary Award in Canada. It was also shortlisted for Britain's prestigious Booker Prize.

Mrs. Shields said her story...