The Stone Diaries is a 1993 award-winning novel by Carol Shields.It is the fictional autobiography of Daisy Goodwill Flett, a seemingly ordinary woman whose life is marked by death and loss from the beginning, when her mother dies during childbirth. Through marriage and motherhood, Daisy struggles to find contentment, never truly understanding her life's true purpose.The book's title may have been inspired by Pat Lowther's poetry collection A Stone Diary (1977).