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Published Oct 2022
256 pages
Genre: Short Stories
Publication Information
Booker Prize winner George Saunders returns with his first collection of short stories since the New York Times bestseller Tenth of December.
The "best short-story writer in English" (Time) is back with a masterful collection that explores ideas of power, ethics, and justice and cuts to the very heart of what it means to live in community with our fellow humans. With his trademark prose—wickedly funny, unsentimental, and exquisitely tuned—Saunders continues to challenge and surprise: Here is a collection of prismatic, resonant stories that encompass joy and despair, oppression and revolution, bizarre fantasy and brutal reality.
"Love Letter" is a tender missive from grandfather to grandson, in the midst of a dystopian political situation in the (not too distant, all too believable) future, that reminds us of our obligations to our ideals, ourselves, and one another. "Ghoul" is set in a Hell-themed section of an underground amusement park in Colorado and follows the exploits of a lonely, morally complex character named Brian, who comes to question everything he takes for granted about his reality. In "Mother's Day," two women who loved the same man come to an existential reckoning in the middle of a hailstorm. In "Elliott Spencer," our eighty-nine-year-old protagonist finds himself brainwashed, his memory "scraped"—a victim of a scheme in which poor, vulnerable people are reprogrammed and deployed as political protesters. And "My House"—in a mere seven pages—comes to terms with the haunting nature of unfulfilled dreams and the inevitability of decay.
Together, these nine subversive, profound, and essential stories coalesce into a case for viewing the world with the same generosity and clear-eyed attention Saunders does, even in the most absurd of circumstances.
"What can't George Saunders do? On the basis of his work since Tenth of December (2013), the answer seems to be nothing at all...A tour de force collection that showcases all of Saunders' many skills." - Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"Saunders's vision of diabolically intrusive tyranny undermining democracy possesses the keen absurdity of Kurt Vonnegut, while his more subtle stories align with the gothic edge of Shirley Jackson...Each of these flawless fables inspires reflection on the fragility of freedom and the valor of the human spirit." - Booklist (starred review)
"Booker winner Saunders returns to the short form with a wide-ranging collection that alternates his familiar fun house of warped simulations with subtler dramas...Saunders's four previous collections shook the earth a bit harder, but he continues to humanize those whom society has worn down to a nub. Despite the author's shift to quieter character studies, there's plenty to satisfy longtime devotees." - Publishers Weekly
"One of our most inventive purveyors of the form returns with pitch-perfect, genre-bending stories that stare into the abyss of our national character...An exquisite work from a writer whose reach is galactic." - Oprah Daily
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Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Photo: Caitlin Saunders
George Saunders is the author of eleven books, including Lincoln in the Bardo, which won the 2017 Man Booker Prize for best work of fiction in English, and was a finalist for the Golden Man Booker, in which one Booker winner was selected to represent each decade, from the fifty years since the Prize's inception. The audiobook for Lincoln in the Bardo, which featured a cast of 166 actors, was the 2018 Audie Award for best audiobook.
His stories have appeared regularly in The New Yorker since 1992. The short story collection Tenth of December was a finalist for the National Book Award, and won the inaugural Folio Prize in 2013 (for the best work of fiction in English) and the Story Prize (best short story collection).
He has received MacArthur and Guggenheim Fellowships, the PEN...
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