EBOOK Thunderstruck & Other Stories

LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARDFrom the author of the beloved novel The Giant&'s Housefinalist for the National Book Awardcomes 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 joyan unexpected conversation with small children, the gift of a parrot with a bad French accentthat 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. . . . 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 BelieverFrom the Hardcover edition.