Synopses & Reviews
In twelve graceful, sensual stories, William Henry Lewis traces the line between the real and the imaginary, acknowledging the painful ghosts of the past in everyday encounters. Written in a style that has been acclaimed by our finest writers, from Edward P. Jones and Nikki Giovanni to Dave Eggers,
I Got Somebody in Staunton is one of the most highly praised literary events to take on contemporary America.
In the title story, a young professor befriends an enigmatic white woman in a bar along the back roads of Virginia, but has second thoughts about driving her to a neighboring town as his uncle's stories of lynchings resonate through his mind. Another tale portrays a Kansas City jazz troupe's travels to Denver, where they hope to strike it big. Meanwhile, a man in the midst of paradise must decide whether he will languish or thrive.
With I Got Somebody in Staunton Lewis has lyrically and unflinchingly chronicled the lives of those most often neglected.
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“Lyrical, risk-taking collection. Lewis renders beautifully the sadness of both those left behind and those whove done the leaving.” O magazine
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“Lewis is an exceptionally promising new writer…intelligent and skilled and very interesting, with a sharp and compassionate eye.” Peter Matthiessen on In the Arms of Elders
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“Haunting, nuanced...With effortless elegance...an important reminder that...the best things are still well worth waiting for.” Elle
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“Powerful...rhythmic lilt to these stories... making plain the uncertainties of blacks in America-- a subject Lewis handles with skill.” Time Out New York
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“Moving but unsentimental, these are stories of hard-won wisdom, potent intelligence, and compassion for the cadence of everyday life.” Boston Globe
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“Intriguing, thought-provoking collection.” Pittsburgh Tribune
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“The art of the short story is seduction. And how lovely it is to visit with this amazing voice.” --Nikki Giovanni
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“These are quiet, deadly stories, beautifully rendered and exquisitely American.” --Percival Everett, author of Erasure
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“A reader ... will find plenty to love in this collection of stories.” Richmond Times-Dispatch
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“Lewiss new collection of stories is tender, ironic, disturbing, and always poetic. His work is a treasure.” --Edward P. Jones, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning, The Known World
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“Thoughtful, appealing...unquestionably powerful.” Publishers Weekly
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“Lewiss stories of love, loss and longing have a sensuous appeal... and earn their keep in the last lines.” New York Times Book Review
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“Lewis is both an artistic and a political writer. . . . [with] a notable gift for prose poetry.” Washington Post
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“Lewis language is tight and controlled, smooth even, weighted with rhythm and complexity.” --Lacey Galbraith, Nashville Scene
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“Resplendent. The stories are beautifully written and carefully crafted.” Los Angeles Times
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“Lewis beautifully renders the odd, quiet moments before and after lifes explosive events>” Entertainment Weekly
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“Lewis, master storyteller, seems less concerned with poetic language as he writes simply and powerfully of inner and exterior landscapes.” Providence Journal
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“Sentence by sentence, this deeply felt and lyrical collection proves that Lewis is a master of the short story.” --Dave Eggers, author of A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genuis
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“A storyteller with a superb sense of place... Evocative stories with a potent kick.” Kirkus Reviews
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“Magnificent description brings to life characters we all have encountered...That is the mark of an accomplished writer.” Richmond Times-Dispatch
About the Author
William Henry Lewis is the prizewinning author of a previous story collection, In the Arms of Our Elders. His fiction has appeared in America's top literary journals and several anthologies. He has been honored with many awards, including a prize for short fiction from the Zora Neale Hurston/Richard Wright Foundation, he was a finalist for the 2005 PEN Faulkner Prize for Fiction, and he is the 2006 recipient of the Black Caucus of the American Library Association Fiction Honor Award.