From Elizabeth McCracken, author of the beloved novel The Giant's House—finalist for the National Book Award—comes a beautiful new story collection, her first in twenty years. Laced with humor, empathy, and magical descriptive powers, these nine vibrant stories navigate the fragile space between love and loneliness.
In "Property", a young scholar, grieving the sudden death of his wife, decides to refurbish a rental house by removing his landlord's possessions. In "Peter Elroy: A Documentary by Ian Casey", the household of a successful filmmaker is visited years later by his famous first subject, whose trust he betrayed. In "The Lost & Found Department of Greater Boston", the manager of a grocery store becomes fixated on the famous case of a missing local woman. And in "Thunderstruck", a family makes a quixotic decision to flee to Paris for a summer, only to find their lives altered in an unimaginable way by their teenage daughter's risky behavior.
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“Elizabeth McCracken knows how loss can melt reality, forever altering a person’s sense of time…In her new collection, McCracken gives brilliantly splintered life to just that kind of story…The fact that there is nothing depressing about the ubiquity of accident and disaster in Thunderstruck & Other Stories is a powerful testament to the scratchy humor and warm intelligence of McCracken’s writing…[A] restorative, unforgettable collection.”
— New York Times Book Review
“McCracken’s short stories are like no others. Her distinctive voice, her slightly askew manner of looking at the world, her mix of mordant humor and tenderness, her sense of life’s ironies, and the jolt of electricity at the end of each tale make her work arresting and memorable…McCracken transforms life’s dead ends into transformational visions.”
— Publishers Weekly (starred review)“Magnetic…Anyone who enjoys short fiction will find pleasure and substance in McCracken’s witty, world-wise collection.”
— Library Journal“Though her characters may seem strange, McCracken paints them with such rich detail that it feels as if we must know them, after all—so immersed in their lives do we become in just a few pages.”
— Booklist“These nine stories from fiction and memoir author McCracken excavate unexplored permutations of loss and grief…McCracken’s skewed perspectives make this a powerfully if quietly disturbing volume.”
— Kirkus Reviews (starred review)Be the first to write a review about this audiobook!
Elizabeth McCracken is the author of The Giant’s House, which was nominated for the National Book Award, and Niagara Falls All Over Again, a winner of the PEN/Winship Award.
Erin Yuen is an audiobook narrator whose readings include Kay Hooper’s Captain’s Paradise, Hanya Yangihara’s The People in the Trees, and Barbara Delinsky’s The Dream Unfolds.