From the up-and-coming young American writer who has contributed to McSweeney's and written for THE NEW YORKER comes a masterful collection of short stories that has already received rave reviews from many of the most prominent writers working today. Some of the stories are comic masterpieces, some embody as dark a vision of the universe as you are likely to encounter, and all of them showcase a writer grappling with the great questions of modern life.
Review
Few literary works have better demonstrated their veracity lately than this glorious collection (Pankaj Mishra FINANCIAL TIMES )
Some of these stories are comic masterpieces, some embody as dark a vision of the universe as you are likely to encounter and all of them showcase a writer grappling with the great questions of modern life. (GRANTA 20130201)
Englander has written a fine collection, as intricately patterned across its length as a novel, although its stories are set in various decades and locations... a book of cautious, crafted, crafty stories that catch you off guard again and again. (THE SUNDAY TIMES 20130217)
This collection of short stories is covered with enthusiastic quotes from American literati. "This," you may think, "is either going to be fantastic or hyped nonsense." Thankfully, it's the former. (EMERALD STREET 20130225)
A remarkable collection (THE GUARDIAN 20130223)
The titular story - a twist on Raymond Carver's, of a similar name - jumps from brilliant Woody Allen-esque dialogue and comedy to darkness. (THE INDEPENDENT 20130223)
Englander deals with powerful questions of morality, history and vengeance. (THE DAILY TELEGRAPH 20130302)
His stories are moving and thought-provoking, pwerful and hilarious by turns. (NEWBOOKS magazine )
An amusing and moving collection. (THE SUNDAY BUSINESS POST 20130303)
This collection by one of America's best short-story writers displays his inimitable capacity to shock, sadden and simultaneously entertain in his explorations of Jewish history and politics. (THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH SEVEN Magazine 20130317)
Remarkable precision, agility and depth (BIG ISSUE IN THE NORTH 20130401)
About the Author
Nathan Englander is the author of the story collections What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank and the internationally bestselling story collection For the Relief of Unbearable Urges, as well as the novel The Ministry of Special Cases (all published by Knopf/Vintage).
His short fiction and essays have appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Atlantic Monthly, and The Washington Post, as well as The O. Henry Prize Stories and numerous editions of The Best American Short Stories.
Translated into more than a dozen languages, Englander was selected as one of "20 Writers for the 21st Century" by The New Yorker, received a Guggenheim Fellowship, a PEN/Malamud Award, the Bard Fiction Prize, and the Sue Kaufman Prize from the American Academy of Arts & Letters. He's been a fellow at the Dorothy & Lewis B. Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers at the New York Public Library, and at The American Academy of Berlin. He teaches in the Graduate Writing Program at Hunter College along with Peter Carey and Colum McCann, and, in the summer, he teaches a course for NYU's Writers in Paris program.
This year, along with the publication of his new collection, Englander's play The Twenty-Seventh Man will premiere at The Public Theater, and his translation New American Haggadah (edited by Jonathan Safran Foer) will be published by Little Brown. He also co-translated Etgar Keret's Suddenly A Knock at the Door forthcoming in March from FSG. He lives in Brooklyn, New York and Madison, Wisconsin.
