Picador

Review by Picador

by Picador

A New York Times Book Review Notable Book
A San Antonio Express Best Book of the year

In this inventive collection of stories, Chris Adrian treads the terrain of human suffering—illness, regret, mourning, sympathy—in the most unusual ways. A bereaved twin starts a friendship with a homicidal fifth grader in the hope that she can somehow lead him back to his dead brother. A boy tries to contact the spirit of his dead father and finds himself talking to the Devil instead. A ne’er do well pediatrician returns home to take care of his dying father, all the while under the scrutiny of an easily-disappointed heavenly agent. With its cast of living and dead characters, and its deft balance of the spiritual and the misanthropic, Adrian has created a haunting work of spectral beauty and wit.

A New York Times Book Review Notable Book A San Antonio Express Best Book of the year In this inventive collection of stories, Chris Adrian treads the terrain of human suffering—illness, regret, mourning, sympathy—in the most unusual ways. A bereaved twin starts a friendship with a homicidal fifth grader in the hope that she can somehow […]

Arts & Culture, Literature

Literature Arts & Culture

Publisher comments on ‘How Fiction Works’

Review by Picador

by Picador

An Economist Best Book of the Year A New York Times Book Review Notable Book A Los Angeles Times Best Book of the Year A San Francisco Chronicle Best Nonfiction Book of the Year A Washington Post Best Book of the Year A Kansas City Star Best Book of the Year A Library Journal Best Book of the Year

Wearing the hat of an enthusiast as well as a critic, James Wood here describes with style and precision the magical process by which fiction lights up our minds. How Fiction Works is a study of the main elements: narrative, detail, characterization, realism, and style. Wood ranges widely, from Homer to Make Way for Ducklings, the Bible to John Le Carre, and his book is both a study of the techniques of fiction-making and an alternative history of the novel. Playful and profound, How Fiction Works will be a revelation to writers, readers, and anyone interested in the magic of a written story.

An Economist Best Book of the Year A New York Times Book Review Notable Book A Los Angeles Times Best Book of the Year A San Francisco Chronicle Best Nonfiction Book of the Year A Washington Post Best Book of the Year A Kansas City Star Best Book of the Year A Library Journal Best […]

Fiction

Fiction

Publisher comments on ‘The Private Lives of Pippa Lee’

Review by Picador

by Picador

Pippa Lee has a stable, prosperous life in place at age fifty, when her older husband decides they should move to a retirement community outside the city. She is suddenly deprived of the stimulation and distraction that had held everything in place. She begins sleepwalking, losing track of her own mind; her foundations begin to shudder, and gradually we learn the truth of the young life that led her finally to settle down in marriage—years of neglect, rebellion, wild transgressions and powerful defiance. The Private Lives of Pippa Lee is the study of a brave, perilous, many-layered woman—an acutely intelligent portrait of the many lives behind a single name.