The News from Spain (Vintage Contemporaries) - Softcover

Wickersham, Joan

Softcover

ISBN 10: 030794929X ISBN 13: 9780307949295

Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2013

Synopsis

A San Francisco Chronicle and NPR Best Book of the Year
The author of the acclaimed memoir The Suicide Index returns with a virtuosic collection of stories, each a stirring parable of the power of love and the impossibility of understanding it. Spanning centuries and continents, from eighteenth-century Vienna to contemporary America, Joan Wickersham shows, with uncanny exactitude, how we never really know what's in someone else's heart--or in our own.

Review :

Best Books of 2012, NPR, San Francisco Chronicle, Kirkus

"Wise and courageous and often brilliant... breaks new ground in our perceptions of what a short story can be. Wonderfully imaginative and original.” – Boston Globe

“An ode to heartbreak and regret...Wickersham's gift is for capturing the habits of mind that lead even smart people to deceive themselves...her book makes you slow down and listen, and then watch for people to reveal themselves.” – New York Times Book Review

“Elegantly structured, emotionally compelling...Short stories don’t get much better than this.” – Kirkus

“Do not mistake Wickersham’s exquisitely polished prose for good manners. Although she writes with a vintage grace...she is brutal and funny too...Divine.” – San Francisco Chronicle

“Virtuosic...Wickersham [takes an] emotional cannonball into every single one of her characters. The doubts and tenderness they share are ones that only the finest fiction can create.” – Oprah.com “Book of the Week”

“Wickersham makes a triumphant return to fiction...articulates subtleties of human behavior that ordinarily elude language altogether.” – Elle

“Munro's and Wickersham's books are at the top of this year's pile.” – Chicago Tribune

“So moving it will close your throat.” – Los Angeles Times

“The prose is beautiful, and you feel those characters like real people.” – Cheryl Strayed

“Wickersham...is a master of the written word and storytelling in all its forms.” – BookPage“Joan Wickersham has done it again: astonished, enchanted, and moved me...Like Alice Munro at her best.” –  Julia Glass

“Gorgeous, completely original...As soon as I finished it, I began to read it again.” – Andre Gregory

“Poignant and insightful...Wickersham is as skilled as Alice Munro in maneuvering her characters, and the reader, through time...
Highly recommended.” – Library Journal

About this title

Review

Best Books of 2012, NPR, San Francisco Chronicle, Kirkus

"Wise and courageous and often brilliant... breaks new ground in our perceptions of what a short story can be. Wonderfully imaginative and original.” – Boston Globe

“An ode to heartbreak and regret...Wickersham's gift is for capturing the habits of mind that lead even smart people to deceive themselves...her book makes you slow down and listen, and then watch for people to reveal themselves.” – New York Times Book Review

“Elegantly structured, emotionally compelling...Short stories don’t get much better than this.” – Kirkus

“Do not mistake Wickersham’s exquisitely polished prose for good manners. Although she writes with a vintage grace...she is brutal and funny too...Divine.” – San Francisco Chronicle

“Virtuosic...Wickersham [takes an] emotional cannonball into every single one of her characters. The doubts and tenderness they share are ones that only the finest fiction can create.” – Oprah.com “Book of the Week”

“Wickersham makes a triumphant return to fiction...articulates subtleties of human behavior that ordinarily elude language altogether.” – Elle

“Munro's and Wickersham's books are at the top of this year's pile.” – Chicago Tribune

“So moving it will close your throat.” – Los Angeles Times

“The prose is beautiful, and you feel those characters like real people.” – Cheryl Strayed

“Wickersham...is a master of the written word and storytelling in all its forms.” – BookPage“Joan Wickersham has done it again: astonished, enchanted, and moved me...Like Alice Munro at her best.” –  Julia Glass

“Gorgeous, completely original...As soon as I finished it, I began to read it again.” – Andre Gregory

“Poignant and insightful...Wickersham is as skilled as Alice Munro in maneuvering her characters, and the reader, through time...
Highly recommended.” – Library Journal

About the Author

Joan Wickersham was born in New York City. She is the author of two previous books, most recently The Suicide Index, a National Book Award finalist. Her fiction has appeared in The Best American Short Stories and The Best American Nonrequired Reading. Her op-ed column appears regularly in The Boston Globe; she has published essays and reviews in the Los Angeles Times and the International Herald Tribune; and she has contributed on-air essays to National Public Radio. She has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the MacDowell Colony, and Yaddo. She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with her husband and two sons.

Edition details

• Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 030794929X
• ISBN 13: 9780307949295
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 224