LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD AND THE STORY PRIZE
Award-winning author Elizabeth McCracken is an undisputed virtuoso of
the short story, and this new collection features her most vibrant and
heartrending work to date
In these stories, the mysterious bonds of family are tested,
transformed, fractured, and fortified. A recent widower and his adult
son ferry to a craggy Scottish island in search of puffins. An actress
who plays a children's game-show villainess ushers in the New Year with
her deadbeat half brother. A mother, pining for her children, feasts on
loaves of challah to fill the void. A new couple navigates a tightrope
walk toward love. And on a trip to a Texas water park with their son,
two fathers each confront a personal fear.
With sentences that crackle and spark and showcase her trademark wit,
McCracken traces how our closely held desires--for intimacy, atonement,
comfort--bloom and wither against the indifferent passing of time. Her
characters embark on journeys that leave them indelibly changed--and so
do her readers. The Souvenir Museum showcases the talents of one of
our finest contemporary writers as she tenderly takes the pulse of our
collective and individual lives.