NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST -
NAMED ONE OF TIME'S TEN BEST FICTION BOOKS OF THE DECADE - NAMED
ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE DECADE BY ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY AND
BUZZFEED - NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE NEW
YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY People - The New
York Times Magazine - NPR - Entertainment Weekly - New York - The
Telegraph - BuzzFeed - Kirkus Reviews - BookPage - Shelf Awareness
Includes an extended conversation with David Sedaris
One of the most important and blazingly original writers of his
generation, George Saunders is an undisputed master of the short story,
and Tenth of December is his most honest, accessible, and moving
collection yet.
In the taut opener, "Victory Lap," a boy witnesses the attempted
abduction of the girl next door and is faced with a harrowing choice:
Does he ignore what he sees, or override years of smothering advice from
his parents and act? In "Home," a combat-damaged soldier moves back in
with his mother and struggles to reconcile the world he left with the
one to which he has returned. And in the title story, a stunning
meditation on imagination, memory, and loss, a middle-aged cancer
patient walks into the woods to commit suicide, only to encounter a
troubled young boy who, over the course of a fateful morning, gives the
dying man a final chance to recall who he really is. A hapless, deluded
owner of an antiques store; two mothers struggling to do the right
thing; a teenage girl whose idealism is challenged by a brutal brush
with reality; a man tormented by a series of pharmaceutical experiments
that force him to lust, to love, to kill--the unforgettable characters
that populate the pages of Tenth of December are vividly and lovingly
infused with Saunders's signature blend of exuberant prose, deep
humanity, and stylistic innovation.
Writing brilliantly and profoundly about class, sex, love, loss, work,
despair, and war, Saunders cuts to the core of the contemporary
experience. These stories take on the big questions and explore the
fault lines of our own morality, delving into the questions of what
makes us good and what makes us human.
Unsettling, insightful, and hilarious, the stories in Tenth of
December--through their manic energy, their focus on what is redeemable
in human beings, and their generosity of spirit--not only entertain and
delight; they fulfill Chekhov's dictum that art should "prepare us for
tenderness."**
**
GEORGE SAUNDERS WAS NAMED ONE OF THE 100 MOST INFLUENTIAL PEOPLE IN
THE WORLD BY TIME MAGAZINE
