Structure

The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating is divided into six parts that include 22 chapters, plus a prologue and epilogue. The chapters are of relatively similar lengths, and each of the book’s six parts has either three or four chapters, making the sections feel evenly balances. The main chapters follow a chronological timeline that trace approximately two years of Elisabeth’s illness, with the main focus of the narrative on the one year in which she was convalescing in the studio with her original snail. The prologue describes the first onset of her illness when she was thirty-four and there is no indication of how much time as passed between when Elisabeth fell ill and the prologue takes place and when she is convalescing in the studio and the main narrative begins. The epilogue is written from the author’s present-day perspective and also serves the...