Description
In this, his first collection of stories since his celebrated, award-winning Last Days of the Dog-Men, Brad Watson takes us even deeper into the riotous, appalling, and mournful oddity of human beings.
In prose so perfectly pitched as to suggest some celestial harmony, he writes about every kind of domestic discord: unruly or distant children, alienated spouses, domestic abuse, loneliness, death, divorce. In his masterful title novella, a freshly married teenaged couple are visited by an unusual pair of inmates from a nearby insane asylum-and find out exactly how mismatched they really are.
With exquisite tenderness, Watson relates the brutality of both nature and human nature. There's no question about it. Brad Watson writes so well-with such an all-seeing, six-dimensional view of human hopes, inadequacies, and rare grace-that he must be an extraterrestrial.
About the Author
Brad Watson (1955-2020) was the author of two critically acclaimed novels, The Heaven of Mercury and Miss Jane, and two collections of stories, Last Days of the Dog-Men and Aliens in the Prime of Their Lives. His work has been recognized by the short list and long list of the National Book Award, the International Dublin Literary Award, the PEN/Faulkner Award, the Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Great Lakes New Writers Award, the Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters Award in Fiction (twice), the Southern Book Critics Circle Award in Fiction, a National Endowment of the Arts Grant in Fiction, a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Harper Lee Award, and the Award in Letters granted by the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He taught creative writing at Harvard University, the University of Alabama, and the University of Wyoming, Laramie.
Reviews
"Consistently delivers that elusive element great Southern writers have always brought to the table-a delicious sense of the unexpected." -- Kirkus Reviews
"Watson is a master at hairpin plot turns, and his characters come alive on the page." -- Publishers Weekly
"Essential reading and highly recommended." -- Library Journal
"Powerful stories." -- Booklist
"Precise, surprising . . . gorgeously turned sentences." -- Pam Houston, author of Cowboys Are My Weakness
Awards
Short-listed for PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction 2011.
Book Information
ISBN 9780393338850
Author Brad Watson
Format Paperback
Page Count 272
Imprint WW Norton & Co
Publisher WW Norton & Co
Weight(grams) 223g
Dimensions(mm) 211mm * 142mm * 18mm
In prose so perfectly pitched as to suggest some celestial harmony, he writes about every kind of domestic discord: unruly or distant children, alienated spouses, domestic abuse, loneliness, death, divorce. In his masterful title novella, a freshly married teenaged couple are visited by an unusual pair of inmates from a nearby insane asylum-and find out exactly how mismatched they really are.
With exquisite tenderness, Watson relates the brutality of both nature and human nature. There's no question about it. Brad Watson writes so well-with such an all-seeing, six-dimensional view of human hopes, inadequacies, and rare grace-that he must be an extraterrestrial.
About the Author
Brad Watson (1955-2020) was the author of two critically acclaimed novels, The Heaven of Mercury and Miss Jane, and two collections of stories, Last Days of the Dog-Men and Aliens in the Prime of Their Lives. His work has been recognized by the short list and long list of the National Book Award, the International Dublin Literary Award, the PEN/Faulkner Award, the Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Great Lakes New Writers Award, the Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters Award in Fiction (twice), the Southern Book Critics Circle Award in Fiction, a National Endowment of the Arts Grant in Fiction, a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Harper Lee Award, and the Award in Letters granted by the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He taught creative writing at Harvard University, the University of Alabama, and the University of Wyoming, Laramie.
Reviews
"Consistently delivers that elusive element great Southern writers have always brought to the table-a delicious sense of the unexpected." -- Kirkus Reviews
"Watson is a master at hairpin plot turns, and his characters come alive on the page." -- Publishers Weekly
"Essential reading and highly recommended." -- Library Journal
"Powerful stories." -- Booklist
"Precise, surprising . . . gorgeously turned sentences." -- Pam Houston, author of Cowboys Are My Weakness
Awards
Short-listed for PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction 2011.
Book Information
ISBN 9780393338850
Author Brad Watson
Format Paperback
Page Count 272
Imprint WW Norton & Co
Publisher WW Norton & Co
Weight(grams) 223g
Dimensions(mm) 211mm * 142mm * 18mm
