50
Used, New, and Out of Print Books - We Buy and Sell - Powell's Books
Cart |
|  my account  |  wish list  |  help   |  800-878-7323
Hello, | Login
MENU
  • Browse
    • New Arrivals
    • Bestsellers
    • Featured Preorders
    • Award Winners
    • Audio Books
    • See All Subjects
  • Used
  • Staff Picks
    • Staff Picks
    • Picks of the Month
    • Bookseller Displays
    • 50 Books for 50 Years
    • 25 Best 21st Century Sci-Fi & Fantasy
    • 25 PNW Books to Read Before You Die
    • 25 Books From the 21st Century
    • 25 Memoirs to Read Before You Die
    • 25 Global Books to Read Before You Die
    • 25 Women to Read Before You Die
    • 25 Books to Read Before You Die
  • Gifts
    • Gift Cards & eGift Cards
    • Powell's Souvenirs
    • Journals and Notebooks
    • socks
    • Games
  • Sell Books
  • Blog
  • Events
  • Find A Store

Don't Miss

  • A Sale By Any Other Name
  • Spring Sale
  • Scientifically Proven Sale
  • Powell's Author Events
  • Oregon Battle of the Books
  • Audio Books

Visit Our Stores


Powell's Staff: 9 New Books to Read This Transgender Day of Visibility (0 comment)
March 31 is International Transgender Day of Visibility, a day dedicated to celebrating the lives and accomplishments of transgender and gender-nonconforming people, while continuing to bring attention to the ongoing prejudice and violence the community faces every day. It’s also a day that serves as an important reminder to cisgender folks...
Read More»
  • Kelsey Ford: Powell's Picks Spotlight: Kelly Link's 'White Cat, Black Dog' (0 comment)
  • Powell's Staff: New Literature in Translation: March 2023 (0 comment)

{1}
##LOC[OK]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##

Dear Life Stories

by Alice Munro
Dear Life Stories

  • Comment on this title
  • Synopses & Reviews
  • Award Excerpt
  • Read an Excerpt

ISBN13: 9780307743725
ISBN10: 0307743721



All Product Details

View Larger ImageView Larger Images
Ships free on qualified orders.
Add to Cart
$16.00
List Price:$17.00
New Trade Paperback
Ships in 1 to 3 days
Add to Wishlist
QtyStore
1Burnside

Awards

Staff Top 5s 2013 2013 Powell's Staff Top 5s

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments

A New York Times Notable Book

A Washington Post Notable Work of Fiction

A Best Book of the Year: The Atlantic, NPR, Vogue, AV Club

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

Alice Munro’s peerless ability to give us the essence of a life in often brief but always spacious and timeless stories is once again everywhere apparent in this brilliant new collection. In story after story, she illumines the moment a life is forever altered by a chance encounter or an action not taken, or by a simple twist of fate that turns a person out of his or her accustomed path and into a new way of being or thinking. A poet, finding herself in alien territory at her first literary party, is rescued by a seasoned newspaper columnist, and is soon hurtling across the continent, young child in tow, toward a hoped-for but completely unplanned meeting. A young soldier, returning to his fiancée from the Second World War, steps off the train before his stop and onto the farm of another woman, beginning a life on the move. A wealthy young woman having an affair with the married lawyer hired by her father to handle his estate comes up with a surprising way to deal with the blackmailer who finds them out.

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.

Suffused with Munro’s clarity of vision and her unparalleled gift for storytelling, these tales about departures and beginnings, accidents and dangers, and outgoings and homecomings both imagined and real, paint a radiant, indelible portrait of how strange, perilous, and extraordinary 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

Review

“One of the great short story writers not just of our time but of any time.” The New York Times Books Review

Review

“Wise and unforgettable. Dear Life is a wondrous gift; a reminder of why Munro’s work endures.” The Boston Globe

Review

“Unquestionable evidence of her unfaded abilities....Reading these stories will tell you something about Alice Munro’s life, but it will tell you more about Alice Munro’s mind — and, not entirely surprisingly, this proves to be even more compelling.” The New Republic

Review

“Alice Munro is not only revered, she is cherished....Dear Life is as rich and astonishing as anything she has done before.” The New York Review of Books

Review

“There is no writer quite as good at illustrating the foibles of love, the confusions and frustrations of life or the inner cruelty and treachery that can be revealed in the slightest gestures and changes of tone....The stories of Dear Life violate a host of creative writing rules, but they establish yet again Munro’s psychological acuity, clear-eyed acceptance of frailties and mastery of the short story form.” The Washington Post

Review

“Exquisite....No other author can tell quite so much with quite so little. The modest surfaces of Munro’s lapidary sentences conceal rich veins of ore.” Chicago Tribune

Review

“Munro’s wonderfully frank and compassionate stories suggest that perseverance, the determination to keep at the work of living, can invest a life with dignity through the end of one’s days.” San Francisco Chronicle

Review

“Absorbing....Most haunting of all are the four autobiographical sketches that end the book, which display Munro’s gift of observation and ability to trace big emotional arcs in short brushstrokes.” Entertainment Weekly

Review

“Alice Munro has long been acknowledged as one of Canada’s literary treasures. This new volume, with its historical slant, its autobiographical material, its impressionistic descriptions of scenery, its occasional nostalgia and pleasing irony, confirms her reputation.” The Washington Times

Review

“How does Munro manage such great effects on a relatively small canvas? It’s a question that most anyone who has seriously attempted to write a short story in the last 20 years has pondered....Munro has a genius, no empty word here, for selecting details that keep unfolding in the reader’s mind.” Los Angeles Times

Review

“Reading Alice Munro is like drinking water — one hardly notices the words, only the marvel at being quenched....Behind each sentence is a world, conjured more distinctly than in many an entire novel.” The Plain Dealer

Synopsis

WINNER OF THE NOBEL PRIZE(r)IN LITERATURE 2013
A New York Times Notable Book
A Washington Post Notable Work of Fiction
A Best Book of the Year: The Atlantic, NPR, San Francisco Chronicle, Vogue, AV Club

In story after story in this brilliant new collection, Alice Munro pinpoints the moment a person is forever altered by a chance encounter, an action not taken, or a simple twist of fate. Her characters are flawed and fully human: a soldier returning from war and avoiding his fiancee, a wealthy woman deciding whether to confront a blackmailer, an adulterous mother and her neglected children, a guilt-ridden father, a young teacher jilted by her employer. Illumined by Munro s unflinching insight, these lives draw us in with their quiet depth and surprise us with unexpected turns. And while most are set in her signature territory around Lake Huron, some strike even closer to home: an astonishing suite of four autobiographical tales offers an unprecedented glimpse into Munro s own childhood. Exalted by her clarity of vision and her unparalleled gift for storytelling, Dear Life shows how strange, perilous, and extraordinary ordinary life can be."

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, and two volumes of Selected Stories. 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 1

What Our Readers Are Saying

Share your thoughts on this title!
Average customer rating 4 (1 comments)

`
Sheila Deeth , May 14, 2014 (view all comments by Sheila Deeth)
Sometimes the truth is in the space between words, and things unsaid reveal more than the question and answers of conversation. Alice Munro’s Dear Life reveals lives, and their secrets, with that same sort of protective silence. Natural conversations, with natural pauses, create the sense of character, time and place. Too little, revealed, keeps the reader searching for more. Then one small slip and the truth will out; the actor slides himself between the lines; the mask falls aside; and what we thought we almost knew is changed... just like in real, dear life. The writing’s spare, convincing, and unemotional, with the tension of genuine need, and the beauty of Canada’s landscapes underneath. Wounded souls have lived through war or privation. Those who’ve kept their emotions reigned in take a step, make a decision, and move on. Betrayal might be ignored, trust broken and restored. Or else the one who cannot stand will find another place. And all these people, the invisible of their land, demand their space, their moment on the page. Sometimes what happens is so small, and its impact so huge, it takes a story to tell it. Alice Munro tells these short stories and lives with masterful precision, voice, and perception, as sure in telling her own past as in revealing the paths of others. Dear Life is a song of life, chance and hope, and a fine collection of intriguing people and stories. Disclosure: We chose it for our book group.

Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No

(4 of 8 readers found this comment helpful)
report this comment




Product Details

ISBN:
9780307743725
Binding:
Trade Paperback
Publication date:
07/30/2013
Publisher:
Vintage
Series info:
Vintage International
Pages:
336
Height:
.71IN
Width:
5.37IN
Thickness:
1.00
Copyright Year:
2013
Author:
Alice Munro
Author:
Alice Munro
Subject:
Literature-A to Z

Ships free on qualified orders.
Add to Cart
$16.00
List Price:$17.00
New Trade Paperback
Ships in 1 to 3 days
Add to Wishlist
QtyStore
1Burnside

More copies of this ISBN

  • New, Trade Paperback, $17.00
  • Used, Trade Paperback, Starting from $7.95

This title in other editions

  • Used, Hardcover, Starting from $10.95
{1}
##LOC[OK]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Pinterest
  • Instagram

  • Help
  • Guarantee
  • My Account
  • Careers
  • About Us
  • Security
  • Wish List
  • Partners
  • Contact Us
  • Shipping
  • Transparency ACT MRF
  • Sitemap
  • © 2023 POWELLS.COM Terms

{1}
##LOC[OK]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##