Critics' Opinion:
Readers' rating:
Published Aug 2021
192 pages
Genre: Short Stories
Publication Information
Stories that capture our times by "a young author who has already established himself as a unique American voice" (Elle).
Said Sayrafiezadeh has been hailed by Philip Gourevitch as "a masterful storyteller working from deep in the American grain." His new collection of stories―some of which have appeared in the New Yorker, the Paris Review, and the Best American Short Stories―is set in a contemporary America full of the kind of emotionally bruised characters familiar to readers of Denis Johnson and George Saunders. These are people contending with internal struggles―a son's fractured relationship with his father, the death of a mother, the loss of a job, drug addiction―even as they are battered by larger, often invisible, economic, political, and racial forces of American society.
Searing, intimate, often slyly funny, and always marked by a deep imaginative sympathy, American Estrangement is a testament to our addled times. It will cement Sayrafiezadeh's reputation as one of the essential twenty-first-century American writers.
"[M]asterful...An elegy for a more united past? A warning against a less united future? A lyrical sequence of stories about infinitely various forms of personal and familial and political estrangement that we fragile humans allow to define our lives? All of the above? Check. Lyrical, funny, smart, and heartbreaking." - Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"[A] rich collection...Sayrafiezadeh vividly captures his characters' misplaced optimism, which is what makes these stories so moving." - Publishers Weekly
"Sayrafiezadeh, entertaining and political without being heavy-handed, is a force to be reckoned with." - Booklist
"These stories combine the intensity of theater, the humor of your smartest friend, and the emotional insight of the imaginary and gentle god you might wish for and fear as a witness. Said Sayrafiezadeh is an extraordinary talent, and these stories merit reading and rereading and rereading." - Rivka Galchen, author of Everyone Knows Your Mother Is a Witch
"Said Sayrafiezadeh is a first-rate short story writer. Every sentence is a delight, and his work has a captivating, immersive quality that leaves the reader shaken and moved. American Estrangement is a superb book with a strange and subtle power sure to haunt readers long after they've closed the cover." - Phil Klay, author of Missionaries
"Sad, mordant, and utterly beguiling, this pitch-perfect volume of stories broke my heart. American Estrangement's characters are endlessly unsettled: stalked by unresolved pasts, trapped in the unbridgeable gulfs of the present moment. Said Sayrafiezadeh works like a miniaturist, impeccably tracing invisible negotiations between human beings―and these stories accumulate with a disquieting, invisible power." - David Adjmi, author of Lot Six
This information about American Estrangement 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.
Said Sayrafiezadeh was born in Brooklyn and raised in Pittsburgh. He is the author of a memoir, When Skateboards Will Be Free, and a story collection, Brief Encounters with the Enemy. He is the recipient of a Whiting Award and a Cullman Center Fellowship. His writing has appeared in the New Yorker, the Paris Review, Granta, the New York Times Magazine, and McSweeney's. He teaches at New York University and Hunter College and lives in New York City.
The Flower Sisters
by Michelle Collins Anderson
From the new Fannie Flagg of the Ozarks, a richly-woven story of family, forgiveness, and reinvention.
The House on Biscayne Bay
by Chanel Cleeton
As death stalks a gothic mansion in Miami, the lives of two women intertwine as the past and present collide.
The Funeral Cryer by Wenyan Lu
Debut novelist Wenyan Lu brings us this witty yet profound story about one woman's midlife reawakening in contemporary rural China.
Your guide toexceptional books
BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.
