This work presents the first continuum shell‐model study of weakly bound neutron‐rich nuclei withseveralvalence nucleons. For the single‐particle basis, we take the complex‐energy Berggren ensemble representing the bound single‐particle states, narrow resonances (Gamow states), and the non‐resonant continuum. In our calculations, we consider the shell‐model Hamiltonian consisting of a one‐body finite Woods‐Saxon potential and a residual two‐body interaction. The proposed Gamow shell model, which is a straightforward extension of the traditional shell model based on a discrete basis, is shown to be an excellent tool for the microscopic description of weakly bound systems. © 2002 American Institute of Physics