WINNER OF THE NOBEL PRIZE® IN LITERATURE 2013
In eight new stories, a master of the form extends and magnifies her great themes--the vagaries of love, the passion that leads down unexpected paths, the chaos hovering just under the surface of things, and the strange, often comical desires of the human heart.
Time stretches out in some of the stories: a man and a woman look back forty years to the summer they met--the summer, as it turns out, that the true nature of their lives was revealed. In others time is telescoped: a young girl finds in the course of an evening that the mother she adores, and whose fluttery sexuality she hopes to emulate, will not sustain her--she must count on herself.
Some choices are made--in a will, in a decision to leave home--with irrevocable and surprising consequences. At other times disaster is courted or barely skirted: when a mother has a startling dream about her baby; when a woman, driving her grandchildren to visit the lakeside haunts of her youth, starts a game that could have dangerous consequences. The rich layering that gives Alice Munro's work so strong a sense of life is particularly apparent in the title story, in which the death of a local optometrist brings an entire town into focus--from the preadolescent boys who find his body, to the man who probably killed him, to the woman who must decide what to do about what she might know. Large, moving, profound--these are stories that extend the limits of fiction.
Alice Munro grew up in Wingham, Ontario, and attended the University of Western Ontario. She has published thirteen collections of stories as well as a novel, Lives of Girls and Women, and two volumes of Selected Stories. During her distinguished career she has been the recipient of many awards and prizes, including three of Canada's Governor General's Literary Awards and two of its Giller Prizes, the Rea Award for the Short Story, the Lannan Literary Award, England's W. H. Smith Book Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the Man Booker International Prize. In 2013 she was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. Her stories have appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic Monthly, The Paris Review, Granta, and other publications, and her collections have been translated into thirteen languages. She lives in Clinton, Ontario, near Lake Huron.
Show moreWINNER OF THE NOBEL PRIZE® IN LITERATURE 2013
In eight new stories, a master of the form extends and magnifies her great themes--the vagaries of love, the passion that leads down unexpected paths, the chaos hovering just under the surface of things, and the strange, often comical desires of the human heart.
Time stretches out in some of the stories: a man and a woman look back forty years to the summer they met--the summer, as it turns out, that the true nature of their lives was revealed. In others time is telescoped: a young girl finds in the course of an evening that the mother she adores, and whose fluttery sexuality she hopes to emulate, will not sustain her--she must count on herself.
Some choices are made--in a will, in a decision to leave home--with irrevocable and surprising consequences. At other times disaster is courted or barely skirted: when a mother has a startling dream about her baby; when a woman, driving her grandchildren to visit the lakeside haunts of her youth, starts a game that could have dangerous consequences. The rich layering that gives Alice Munro's work so strong a sense of life is particularly apparent in the title story, in which the death of a local optometrist brings an entire town into focus--from the preadolescent boys who find his body, to the man who probably killed him, to the woman who must decide what to do about what she might know. Large, moving, profound--these are stories that extend the limits of fiction.
Alice Munro grew up in Wingham, Ontario, and attended the University of Western Ontario. She has published thirteen collections of stories as well as a novel, Lives of Girls and Women, and two volumes of Selected Stories. During her distinguished career she has been the recipient of many awards and prizes, including three of Canada's Governor General's Literary Awards and two of its Giller Prizes, the Rea Award for the Short Story, the Lannan Literary Award, England's W. H. Smith Book Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the Man Booker International Prize. In 2013 she was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. Her stories have appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic Monthly, The Paris Review, Granta, and other publications, and her collections have been translated into thirteen languages. She lives in Clinton, Ontario, near Lake Huron.
Show moreAlice Munro grew up in Wingham, Ontario, and attended the
University of Western Ontario. She has published thirteen
collections of stories as well as a novel, Lives of Girls and
Women, and two volumes of Selected Stories. During her
distinguished career she has been the recipient of many awards and
prizes, including three of Canada’s Governor General’s Literary
Awards and two of its Giller Prizes, the Rea Award for the Short
Story, the Lannan Literary Award, England’s W. H. Smith Book Award,
the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the Man Booker
International Prize. In 2013 she was awarded the Nobel Prize for
Literature. Her stories have appeared in The New Yorker, The
Atlantic Monthly, The Paris Review, Granta, and other publications,
and her collections have been translated into thirteen languages.
She lives in Clinton, Ontario, near Lake Huron.
“Superb . . . Long ago, Virginia Woolf described George Eliot as
one of the few writers ‘for grown-up people.’ The same might today,
and with equal justice, be said of Alice Munro.”—Michael Gorra, New
York Times Book Review
“A writer for the ages.”—Dan Cryer, Newsday
“Alice Munro is indisputably a master. Like all great writers, she
helps sharpen perception. . . . Her imagination is fearless. . . .
A better book of stories can scarcely be imagined.”—Greg Varner,
Washington Post Book World
“A riveting collection . . . a lovely book. Munro’s stories move
through the years with a sneaky grace.”—Georgia Jones-Davis, San
Francisco Chronicle
“A triumph . . . certain to seal her reputation as our contemporary
Chekhov.”—Carol Shields, Mirabella
“Superlative . . . [Munro] distills a novel’s worth of dramatic
events into a story of twenty pages.”—Erik Huber, Time Out
“These astonishing stories remind us, yet again, of the literary
miracles Alice Munro continues to perform.”—Francine Prose, Elle
Superb...Long ago, Virginia Woolf described George Eliot as one of
the few writers 'for grown-up people.' The same might today, and
with equal justice, be said of Alice Munro.--Michael Gorra, New
York Times Book Review
A writer for the ages--Dan Cryer, Newsday
Alice Munro is indisputably a master. Like all great writers, she
helps sharpen perception...Her imagination is fearless...A better
book of stories can scarcely be imagined.--Greg Varner,
Washington Post Book World
A riveting collection...a lovely book. Munro's stories move through
the years with a sneaky grace.--Georgia Jones-Davis, San
Francisco Chronicle
A triumph...certain to seal her reputation as our contemporary
Chekhov--Carol Shields, Mirabella
Superlative...She distills a novel's worth of dramatic events into
a story of 20 pages.--Erik Huber, Time OutM
These astonishing stories remind us, yet again, of the literary
miracles Alice Munro continues to perform.--Francine Prose,
Elle
Praise from fellow writers:
"Her work felt revolutionary when I came to it, and it still does."
-Jhumpa Lahiri
"She is one of the handful of writers, some living, most dead, whom
I have in mind when I say that fiction is my religion." -Jonthan
Franzen
"The authority she brings to the page is just lovely." -Elizabeth
Strout
"She's the most savage writer I've ever read, also the most tender,
the most honest, the most perceptive." -Jeffery Eugenides
"Alice Munro can move characters through time in a way that no
other writer can."-Julian Barnes
"She is a short-story writer who...reimagined what a story can do."
-Loorie Moore
"There's probably no one alive who's better at the craft of the
short story." -Jim Shepard
"A true master of the form." -Salman Rushdie
"A wonderful writer." -Joyce Carol Oates
Eight new stories; a 50,000-copy first printing.
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