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by John Metcalf
Destined to be heralded as one of the most important books of the year, The Museum at the End of the World secures Metcalf's position among Canada's greatest literary figures.
Set in Nashville, Memphis, New Orleans, and Ottawa, the stories in this collection span the life of writer Robert Ford and his wife Sheila. Playing with various forms of comedy throughout, Metcalf paints a portrait of twentieth-century literary life with levity, satire, and unsuspecting moments of emotional depth.
"Starred Review. This is a book that could restore anyone's faith in the pleasure of reading." - Kirkus
"The characters, dialogue, and situations feel rather dated, but the curmudgeonly, pedantic narrator - an intellectual railing against the novel's "modern" world and its curious cast of characters - is amusing, and the writing is sharp and funny." - Publishers Weekly
"John Metcalf comes as close to the baffling, painful comedy of human experience as a writer can get." - Alice Munro
This information about The Museum at the End of the World was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
John Metcalf is the author of more than a dozen works of fiction and nonfiction, including Standing Stones: Selected Stories, Adult Entertainment, Going Down Slow, and Kicking Against the Pricks.
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