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What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank: Stories Audiobook
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(3.01) - 2,442 listener ratings
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Publisher Description
These eight new stories from the celebrated novelist and short-story writer Nathan Englander display a gifted young author grappling with the great questions of modern life, with a command of language and the imagination that place Englander at the very forefront of contemporary American fiction. The title story, inspired by Raymond Carver’s masterpiece, is a provocative portrait of two marriages in which the Holocaust is played out as a devastating parlor game. In the outlandishly dark “Camp Sundown” vigilante justice is undertaken by a group of geriatric campers in a bucolic summer enclave. “Free Fruit for Young Widows” is a small, sharp study in evil, lovingly told by a father to a son. “Sister Hills” chronicles the history of Israel’s settlements from the eve of the Yom Kippur War through the present, a political fable constructed around the tale of two mothers who strike a terrible bargain to save a child. Marking a return to two of Englander’s classic themes, “Peep Show” and “How We Avenged the Blums” wrestle with sexual longing and ingenuity in the face of adversity and peril. And “Everything I Know About My Family on My Mother’s Side” is suffused with an intimacy and tenderness that break new ground for a writer who seems constantly to be expanding the parameters of what he can achieve in the short form. Beautiful and courageous, funny and achingly sad, Englander’s work is a revelation.
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"I agree with my awesome friend Amy on this one -- these stories I could not put down. I read one right after the other trying to find a common thread (besides the obvious one from the title). One theme that grabbed me was the many definitions of "courage" throughout these stories. I also admired that the author has a very spare way with words but can tell so much. I look forward to reading more!"
— Tamara (4 out of 5 stars)
Awards
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Selected for the February 2012 Indie Next List
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A New York Times bestseller
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One of the 2012 Kirkus Reviews’ Best Books
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A 2012 Kansas City Star Top 100 Book for Fiction
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A 2012 New York Times Book Review Notable Book
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A 2013 Pulitzer Prize Finalist for Fiction
What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank Listener Reviews
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" Philosophical and unpredictable. A great voice. Some of it is very funny, but I'm mainly left with a feeling of disquiet which is, I suppose, culturally appropriate. "
— Marcie, 2/3/2014 -
" Great first two stories in this collection; the rest fall into the category of male Jewish angst about sex life, a la Philip Roth and Woody Allen. Been there, done that. "
— Sarah, 1/26/2014 -
" Would give zero stars if possible. "
— Christian, 1/20/2014 -
" A great collection that I think will get better with every reading - one to dip in and out of, forever. Especially loved "The Reader." "
— Sharon, 1/12/2014 -
" To be read in one sitting on a Sunday with a cup of coffee. "
— Sara, 1/9/2014 -
" I liked so much about this book. A very quick read. Each chapter was its own story. Nothing to follow. I just wish I enjoyed all the stories as much as I liked the first. That is the way it always seems with books like this. I hit one really great story, weather it's the first or the last and I just think the rest are going to be like that and am disappointed when they aren't. Oh well! All the stories had a Jewish theme to them and they were all over the place on levels of Jewishness, which I liked a lot. I just really like the first one. The others, I was meh on. Oh well! "
— Rebecca, 12/30/2013 -
" The title story is amazing, the rest are up and down, but still worth a read. "
— Adele, 12/28/2013 -
" Quick read, brilliant stories, the first story, for me was the best, but they are all chilling. "
— Ruthie, 12/28/2013 -
" The critics swoon, I thought it was OK. "
— Michael, 12/24/2013 -
" The title story is incredible. I keep re-reading it. "
— Dalia, 12/23/2013 -
" Haunting, sometimes chilling stories concerning the Jewish experience. Pick it up to read the title story alone. I may not have liked all the stories in themselves, but I certainly appreciate his fine writing. "
— Julie, 11/26/2013
About Nathan Englander
Nathan Englander’s short fiction has appeared in the New Yorker, Atlantic, and numerous anthologies, including The Best American Short Stories and The O. Henry Prize Stories. He is the author of the novel The Ministry of Special Cases and the story collection For the Relief of Unbearable Urges, which earned him a PEN/Malamud Award and the Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.
About Various
Téa Obreht was born in Belgrade in the former Yugoslavia in 1985 and has lived in the United States since the age of twelve. Her writing has been published in the New Yorker, the Atlantic, Harper’s, and the Guardian, and has been anthologized in The Best American Short Stories and The Best American Nonrequired Reading. She has been named by the New Yorker as one of the twenty best American fiction writers under forty. She lives in New York.