Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
A highly anticipated debut, Love Like That is a collection of nine darkly playful and moving stories about women who--at their darkest and loneliest times--discover what is worth loving in the world.
Populated by misfits and misanthropes, bickering sisters, responsible daughters and unhappy wives, the stories in Emma Duffy-Comparone's collection challenge us in the face of abandonment, illness, and tragedy to look at the world with wonder and amusement.
Here, one woman on the brink of becoming a stepmother wonders whether she can love the eight-year-old boy (the Kid) who has a stranglehold on her boyfriend's affections. Another grapples with how to build a life after sickening trauma for which she is responsible. A sister visits her brother, only to watch him live through a gruesome accident. In these stories, Duffy-Comparone does not shy away from suffering--nor does she disguise the experiences that can accompany horror: deep humor, or searing unpredictable beauty.
Slyly, wickedly funny, and brimming with truth, she writes about family--biological, chosen, and decidedly not-chosen--with audacity, withering sharpness, and heart.
Synopsis
A highly anticipated debut, Love Like That is a collection of nine darkly playful and moving stories about brilliant, broken women trying and finding their places in the world
Populated by misfits and misanthropes, bickering sisters, responsible daughters and unhappy wives, the stories in Emma Duffy-Comparone's collection challenge us in the face of abandonment, illness, and tragedy to look at the world with wonder and amusement.
Here, one woman on the brink of becoming a stepmother wonders whether she can love the eight-year-old boy (the Kid) who has a stranglehold on her boyfriend's affections. Another grapples with how to build a life after sickening trauma for which she is responsible. A sister visits her brother, only to watch him live through a gruesome accident. In these stories, Duffy-Comparone does not shy away from suffering--nor does she disguise the experiences that can accompany horror: deep humor, or searing unpredictable beauty.
Slyly, wickedly funny, and brimming with truth, she writes about family--biological, chosen, and decidedly not-chosen--with audacity, withering sharpness, and heart.
Synopsis
For readers of Lorrie Moore and Mary Gaitskill, Love Like That is a collection of joyfully subversive and moving stories about brilliant, broken women that are just the right amount wrong
Whether diving into complicated relationships or wrestling with family ties, the girls and women who populate this collection--misfits and misanthropes, bickering sisters, responsible daughters, and unhappy wives--don't always find themselves making the best decisions. A woman struggles with a new kind of love triangle when she moves in with a divorced dad. A lonely teenage beach attendant finds uneasy comradeship with her boss. A high school English teacher gets pushed to her limits when a student plagiarizes. Often caught between desire and duty, guilt and resentment, these characters discover what it means to get lost in love, and do what it takes to find themselves again. Utterly singular and wholly unforgettable, Duffy-Comparone's stories manage to be slyly, wickedly funny at even their darkest turns and herald the arrival of an exciting new voice in fiction.
Synopsis
A joyfully subversive and moving debut collection of stories about brilliant, broken women that are just the right amount wrong.
Whether diving into complicated relationships or wrestling with family ties, the girls and women who populate this collection--misfits and misanthropes, bickering sisters, responsible daughters, and unhappy wives--don't always find themselves making the best decisions. A woman struggles with a new kind of love triangle when she moves in with a divorced dad. A lonely teenage beach attendant finds uneasy comradeship with her boss. A high school English teacher gets pushed to her limits when a student plagiarizes. Often caught between desire and duty, guilt and resentment, these characters discover what it means to get lost in love, and do what it takes to find themselves again. Utterly singular and wholly unforgettable, Duffy-Comparone's stories manage to be slyly, wickedly funny at even their darkest turns and herald the arrival of an irreverent and dazzling new voice.
Synopsis
Named a Best New Book of 2021 by Vogue and Refinery29
Named a Most Anticipated Book of 2021 by Lit Hub
A joyfully subversive and moving debut collection of stories about brilliant, broken women that are just the right amount wrong.
Whether diving into complicated relationships or wrestling with family ties, the girls and women who populate this collection--misfits and misanthropes, bickering sisters, responsible daughters, and unhappy wives--don't always find themselves making the best decisions. A woman struggles with a new kind of love triangle when she moves in with a divorced dad. A lonely teenage beach attendant finds uneasy comradeship with her boss. A high school English teacher gets pushed to her limits when a student plagiarizes. Often caught between desire and duty, guilt and resentment, these characters discover what it means to get lost in love, and do what it takes to find themselves again. Utterly singular and wholly unforgettable, Duffy-Comparone's stories manage to be slyly, wickedly funny at even their darkest turns and herald the arrival of an irreverent and dazzling new voice.
Synopsis
Named a Best New Book of 2021 by Vogue and Refinery29
Named a Most Anticipated Book of 2021 by Lit Hub
"A witty, provocative short story collection, filled with women who are delightfully difficult."
--Refinery29
A joyfully subversive and moving debut collection of stories about brilliant, broken women that are just the right amount wrong.
Whether diving into complicated relationships or wrestling with family ties, the girls and women who populate this collection--misfits and misanthropes, bickering sisters, responsible daughters, and unhappy wives--don't always find themselves making the best decisions. A woman struggles with a new kind of love triangle when she moves in with a divorced dad. A lonely teenage beach attendant finds uneasy comradeship with her boss. A high school English teacher gets pushed to her limits when a student plagiarizes. Often caught between desire and duty, guilt and resentment, these characters discover what it means to get lost in love, and do what it takes to find themselves again. Utterly singular and wholly unforgettable, Duffy-Comparone's stories manage to be slyly, wickedly funny at even their darkest turns and herald the arrival of an irreverent and dazzling new voice.
Synopsis
Named a Best New Book of 2021 by Vogue and Refinery29
Named a Most Anticipated Book of 2021 by Lit Hub
Named one of 5 Hot Books by The National Book Review
For a friend who needs a reminder that love is weird, humans are complicated, and bad things often get better or at least later become funny stories to tell our friends. --Vanity Fair
A sharp, witty book about brilliant, broken women that are just the right amount wrong.
Whether diving into complicated relationships or wrestling with family ties, the girls and women who populate this collection--misfits and misanthropes, bickering sisters, responsible daughters, and unhappy wives--don't always find themselves making the best decisions.
A woman struggles with a new kind of love triangle when she moves in with a divorced dad. A lonely teenage beach attendant finds uneasy comradeship with her boss. A high school English teacher gets pushed to her limits when a student plagiarizes. Often caught between desire and duty, guilt and resentment, these characters discover what it means to get lost in love, and do what it takes to find themselves again.
Utterly singular and wholly unforgettable, Emma Duffy-Comparone's stories manage to be slyly, wickedly funny at even their darkest turns and herald the arrival of an irreverent and dazzling new voice.