Thunderstruck & Other Stories (Folio Prize Nominee)

by Elizabeth McCracken

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Pub Date Jun 05 2014 | Archive Date Feb 15 2015

Random House UK, Vintage Publishing | Jonathan Cape

General Fiction (Adult)

Description

LONGLISTED FOR THE 2015 FOLIO PRIZE

A brilliant new collection of short fiction from the National Book Award finalist and author of The Giant’s House.

From the author of the beloved novel The Giant's House - finalist for the National Book Award - comes a beautiful new story collection, her first in twenty years. Laced through with humour, empathy, and rare and magical descriptive powers these nine vibrant stories navigate the fragile space between love and loneliness. In 'Property', 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. 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 behaviour.

In Elizabeth McCracken's universe, heartache is always interwoven with strange, charmed moments of joy - an unexpected conversation with small children, the gift of a parrot with a bad French accent - that 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.

A Note From the Publisher

UK edition – available to read in UK, Commonwealth excluding Canada.

Advance Praise

These nine stories are filled with longing, guilt and violence. - New York Times

Jewelled and barbed with the beauty and brutality of real life, these are sentences of perfect weight and understanding. There are no fillers here, no stories that disappoint: the nine coalesce into something rare and understatedly breathtaking. Like the missing who haunt these stories, Thunderstruck is unforgettable. - Observer

Wonderful, moving tales. - Financial Times

An electric blend of hilarity and despair. - O, The Oprah Magazine

[A] powerful collection. - Independent on Sunday

McCracken writes in lilting, contained prose, and imbues her narratives with wry humour and the soothing resonance of fairy tales… An unforgettable collection that should be irredeemably sad but, in fact, is strangely life-affirming. - Sunday Times

Praise for Elizabeth McCracken:
‘Extraordinary.’
Alice Sebold

Praise for An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination:
‘A grief memoir that fuses the immediacy readers crave from the genre with all the reflective, consoling depth of fiction.’
Observer

Praise for Niagara Falls All Over Again:
‘A book about love, about the alchemy that attention can perform, about the complexities of giving and receiving. Compassionate, perceptive, generous, this novel shines. It is also as compelling as anything I've read in years. Once I picked it up, I simply could not put it down.’
John Burnside, Scotsman

‘Deserves a standing ovation-as beautiful a portrait of a very peculiar marriage as you'll see in print-seductive-sublime storytelling.’
Independent on Sunday

Praise for The Giant’s House:
‘The most original and enchanting romance I have read in a long time.’
Erica Wagner, The Times

‘Every so often a novel comes along which transcends whimsy with the beauty of its writing. Elizabeth McCracken's small masterpiece is one of these.’
Guardian

These nine stories are filled with longing, guilt and violence. - New York Times

Jewelled and barbed with the beauty and brutality of real life, these are sentences of perfect weight and...

Marketing Plan

‘McCracken’s short stories are like no others. Her distinctive voice, her slightly askew manner of looking at the world, her mix of mordant humour and tenderness, her sense of life’s ironies, and the jolt of electricity at the end of each tale make her work arresting and memorable. In this collection of nine short narratives… McCracken transforms life’s dead ends into transformational visions.’ Publishers Weekly (starred)

‘Extraordinary’ Alice Sebold

The author will be in the UK for publication

We sold over 20,000 copies of The Giant’s House