Author(s): Elizabeth McCracken

Fiction

From the 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 through with the humor, the empathy, and the rare and magical descriptive powers that have led Elizabeth McCracken's fiction to be hailed as "exquisite" ("The New York Times Book Review"), "funny and heartbreaking" ("The Boston Globe"), and "a true marvel" ("San Francisco Chronicle"), these nine vibrant stories navigate the fragile space between love and loneliness. In "Property," selected by Geraldine Brooks for "The Best American Short Stories, " a young scholar, grieving the sudden death of his wife, decides to refurbish the Maine rental house they were to share together 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 on the fate of the teenage son she left behind. And in the unforgettable title story, 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. In Elizabeth McCracken's universe, heartache is always interwoven with strange, charmed moments of joy--an unexpected conversation with small children, the gift of a parrot with a bad French accent--that remind us of the wonder and mystery of being alive. "Thunderstruck & Other Stories" shows this inimitable writer working at the full height of her powers. Praise for "Thunderstruck & Other Stories" "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. . . . Her wisdom and wit have a moral dimension that deepens our sympathy for her straying souls. . . . [A] restorative, unforgettable collection."--Sylvia Brownrigg, "The New York Times Book Review "(Editor's Choice) "Stunningly beautiful . . . brilliantly moving . . . Moments of joy and pure magic flicker and pitch-perfect humor acts as a furtive SOS signal through the fog of loss."--"Los Angeles Times" "The draw here is mesmerizing strangeness, heightened by McCracken's extraordinary images. . . . McCracken's description of eyeglasses which are 'the opposite of the weather: overcast when it was bright, clear when it was cloudy' will color the way you see transition lenses as surely as her off-kilter tales will subtly shade your view of love and parenting. . . . McCracken explores her characters' subtexts even as she catches them in the car wrecks of their lives. To resist gawking is hopeless."--NPR "Elizabeth McCracken is one of my favorite writers. Or, to put it another way: I've read everything she's written . . . and there's nothing I haven't liked and admired enormously. . . . She writes with acuity, soul, and a kind of easy grace that probably kills her, about characters she has created to love. . . . Anything new by her is an excuse for wild, drunken celebration." --Nick Hornby, "The Believer"