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Powell's Staff: New Literature in Translation: December 2022 and January 2023 (0 comment)
It may be a new year, this may be a list of new books, but our love for literature in translation hasn’t changed at all, and we are so pleased to be enthusiastically recommending these recent releases. On this list, you’ll find a Spanish novel where controversy swirls around a Coca-Cola billboard...
Read More»
  • Kelsey Ford: From the Stacks: J. M. Ledgard's Submergence (0 comment)
  • Kelsey Ford: Five Book Friday: Year of the Rabbit (1 comment)

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Dear Life Stories

by Alice Munro
Dear Life Stories

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  • Synopses & Reviews

ISBN13: 9780307596888
ISBN10: 0307596885
Condition: Standard
DustJacket: Standard

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Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments

A brilliant new collection of stories from one of the most acclaimed and beloved writers of our time.

With her peerless ability to give us the essence of a life in often brief but spacious and timeless stories, Alice Munro illumines the moment a life is shaped — the moment a dream, or sex, or perhaps a simple twist of fate turns a person out of his or her accustomed path and into another way of being. Suffused with Munro's clarity of vision and her unparalleled gift for storytelling, these stories (set in the world Munro has made her own: the countryside and towns around Lake Huron) about departures and beginnings, accidents, dangers, and homecomings both virtual and real, paint a vivid and lasting portrait of how strange, dangerous, and extraordinary the ordinary life can be.

Review

"It's no surprise that every story in the latest collection by Canada's Munro is rewarding and that the best are stunning. They leave the reader wondering how the writer manages to invoke the deepest, most difficult truths of human existence in the most plainspoken language....The author knows what matters, and the stories pay attention to it." Kirkus, starred review

Review

"Unreserved praise for the continued wonderment provided by arguably the best short-story writer in English today....On whatever level of reader familiarity Munro is working, in every story she finds new ways to make the lives of ordinary people compelling." Booklist, starred review

Review

"With her penetrating new collection, Alice Munro demonstrates once again why she deserves her reputation as a master of short fiction....'This is not a story, only life,' declares the protagonist of the title narrative. With the subtlety and complexity of Munro's writing, it's hard to tell the difference." Pamela Newtown, O Magazine

Synopsis

While most of these stories take place in Munro’s home territory — the small Canadian towns around Lake Huron — the characters sometimes venture to the cities, and the book ends with four pieces set in the area where she grew up, and in the time of her own childhood: stories “autobiographical in feeling, though not, sometimes, entirely so in fact.” A girl who can’t sleep imagines night after wakeful night that she kills her beloved younger sister. A mother snatches up her child and runs for dear life when a crazy woman comes into her yard.

About the Author

Alice Munro grew up in Wingham, Ontario, and attended the University of Western Ontario. She has published fourteen collections of stories as well as a novel, Lives of Girls and Women. During her distinguished career she has been the recipient of many awards and prizes, including three of Canada's Governor General's Literary Awards and two of its Giller Prizes, the Rea Award for the Short Story, the Lannan Literary Award, England's W. H. Smith Book Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the Man Booker International Prize. In 2013 she was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. Her stories have appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The Paris Review, Granta, and other publications, and her collections have been translated into thirteen languages. She lives in Clinton, Ontario, near Lake Huron.

4.8 8

What Our Readers Are Saying

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Average customer rating 4.8 (8 comments)

`
nightpatrol , October 25, 2014 (view all comments by nightpatrol)
Alice Munro can say so much in so little space. Her visually stunning words create poignant stories which have the ability to resonate with our own memories and lives, all in stories of a mere 20-25 pages. If you haven't read Munro, this collection is a good place to start. This may seem odd, because this is Munro's most recent body of work (2012) and may very well be her last (though we all hope otherwise). Over the years, her strength as a writer has not wavered. These later pieces contain all the beauty and poise of her earlier work, but they also carry with them all of the wisdom she has gained throughout her life. Dear Life is a lovely introduction to Munro. It would be enjoyable to begin with this collection and to work your way backwards, ensuring you do not miss staples like The Moons of Jupiter and Lives of Girls and Women.

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writermala , June 13, 2013 (view all comments by writermala)
It's been a while since I enjoyed a book of short stories as much as I did this one. To read in such picturesque words about events and times in the not so distant past is indeed a treat and Munro has done justice to the times in a remarkable way. Indeed in this collection of short stories, Munro has packed so much detail that I may never read a novel again!

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dmm , January 19, 2013
I had read some of these stories in the New Yorker, but it was very good to read the whole volume's stories together for their cumulative significance and impact. Munro introduces the last four pieces in the book by saying that they are "the first and last--and the closest--things [she has] to say about [her] own life." I find that they, in addition, have a great deal to say to me about my own life and the human condition. This book touches me.

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Pandora Andre-Beatty , January 05, 2013
Alice Munro creates such perfectly crafted short stories I almost wish they would go on. But then I start the next story and it is equally as good. She's a master of the genre for our time.

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SF Bay Reader , January 03, 2013
Like an ace of an oyster shucker, Alice Munro has opened up another great set of stories. She has a wise and eloquent voice. To read her stories is to open yourself up to advice as if from a close friend -- aha, a pearl. She is as dangerously witty as she is sensitive -- reminding us at once to be raw in our true selves AND to laugh at life. We are blessed that she keeps them coming!

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cello player , January 01, 2013 (view all comments by cello player)
I love Alice Munro's writing. She never fails to stun, tease and delight.

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EdwardHakim , December 24, 2012 (view all comments by EdwardHakim)
Only occasionally do I read short stories, and when I do, they are invariably of the mystery or suspense genre, usually with a 'twist' in the ending. I had of course heard of Alice Munro, but I didn't really know much about her writing. I knew that the stories in this book would be different from what I was used to, but I was not prepared for how very much I enjoyed them.

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Lani Lee , December 17, 2012 (view all comments by Lani Lee)
Of course every Munro collection is wonderful (her fans are legion for a reason!), but this is the first collection since Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage that I have devoured so greedily, I hardly paused over her tricks of prose, anxious to see where she was going to take me and what was going to happen. Anyone who is already a fan of Munro will be reminded of some of her earlier work (in particular, I was reminded of Open Secrets in tone and length and narrative gymnastics). This is also a wonderful collection for someone new to Munro, since the shorter stories aren't as daunting (though once you're a fan, you could read a one hundred page "short story" by her and not balk). A special treat is the "Finale" section, wherein Munro reveals a bit of her own story. Of course, she doesn't tell us which parts of the stories are fact and which are fiction, but the elements of her fiction are there, showing a bit of insight into her inspiration. READ THIS BOOK!

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Product Details

ISBN:
9780307596888
Binding:
Hardcover
Publication date:
11/13/2012
Publisher:
PENGUIN RANDOM HOUSE
Language:
English
Pages:
319
Height:
1.30IN
Width:
5.90IN
Thickness:
1.50
Author:
Alice Munro
Author:
Alice Munro
Subject:
Literature-A to Z

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List Price:$26.95
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