"A scintillating collection of short stories and a novella that
encompass pathos and hilarity and range from breathtakingly succinct yet
richly faceted tales, like the diamonds that figure in several
unexpectedly connected stories, to longer **works iridescent with
tangible and psychological detail."―*Booklist
**
*"In elegant prose, Weber offers intimate views on her characters' inner
lives. At its best, this offers an ode to the universality of
change."―*Publishers Weekly
*"Weber's genius in these startling, haunting stories is to find the
momentary connections in things that make up or derail a life, be it an
artichoke and a dead woman's earrings, or a plant and a hospice worker.
Written in prose as dazzling and finecrafted as diamonds, Weber's
stories show us ordinary people in extraordinary moments, doing what the
best literature does―they make us look at our own world
differently."―Caroline Leavitt, author of Pictures of You
and ***Cruel Beautiful World
***At the heart of every story in this collection, Katharine Weber has
located a compelling character in medias res, at a moment when
situation, desire, and identity are intersecting and sometimes
colliding. Children go door to door selling poison mushrooms. An elderly
New Yorker on the brink of losing her freedom bolts for one last
dignified adventure. A girl is employed to babysit a sleeping baby she
is forbidden to see. In the title novella, lonely children roaming their
Connecticut neighborhood discover a forgotten bomb shelter, which they
make their secret headquarters. Jane of Hearts offers Katharine
Weber's readers a lively assortment of her short fiction, each story a
precise and nuanced investigation of its moments.
"With eloquence, wit and wisdom, Katharine Weber transports her readers
from Madagascar to Connecticut, from jury duty to a feast of poisonous
mushrooms. In the best way, I never knew what I would find on the next
page in this wonderfully engaging, vividly peopled collection."―Margot
Livesey, author of The Boy in the Field and ***The Hidden
Machinery
***"Katharine Weber's trademark intelligence and wit are on full,
dazzling display in her not-to-be missed, career-spanning collection, .
Secret family histories, childhood games turned dangerous, moments
imbued with fierce, unexpected consequences, inform these compulsively
readable, razor-sharp stories. A triumph."―Kate Walbert, author of
She Was Like That and ***His Favorites
***"Weber's sly, elegant stories unfurl to reveal themselves from inside
out, startlingly beautiful, sharp-edged, funny, and moving. This
collection is sheer pleasure to read."―Kate Christensen, PEN/Faulkner
award-winning author of The Great Man and ***The Last
Cruise
***"Whether she's turning her attention to the miniature tragedy of a
group of curious neighborhood girls at play among dangerous chemicals,
uncovering new details of the grand harrowing European Jewish experience
in WWII, or simply giving us a glimpse of a fraught relationship on a
trip to Geneva, Katharine Weber's linked stories are always full of her
signature verve, subtle wit and precision. This is an impressive
collection of interwoven stories, marked by breadth, fierce intelligence
and sheer storytelling talent."―Daniel Torday, author of Boomer1 and
The Last Flight of Poxl West
