Synopses & Reviews
LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD AND THE STORY PRIZE
Award-winning author Elizabeth McCracken is an undisputed virtuoso of the short story, and this new collection features her most vibrant and heartrending work to date
In these stories, the mysterious bonds of family are tested, transformed, fractured, and fortified. A recent widower and his adult son ferry to a craggy Scottish island in search of puffins. An actress who plays a children's game-show villainess ushers in the New Year with her deadbeat half brother. A mother, pining for her children, feasts on loaves of challah to fill the void. A new couple navigates a tightrope walk toward love. And on a trip to a Texas water park with their son, two fathers each confront a personal fear.
With sentences that crackle and spark and showcase her trademark wit, McCracken traces how our closely held desires — for intimacy, atonement, comfort--bloom and wither against the indifferent passing of time. Her characters embark on journeys that leave them indelibly changed — and so do her readers. The Souvenir Museum showcases the talents of one of our finest contemporary writers as she tenderly takes the pulse of our collective and individual lives.
Review
"[A]n assured collection...McCracken opens up worlds in a mere sentence, and every page is illuminated with nuanced observations of human behavior." — Booklist
Review
"McCracken's sly, emotionally complex collection focuses on characters uprooted from their usual surroundings....Each story opens to reveal a whole life spent within the web of a family, chosen or not. Full of gems, this collection is a winner." — Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)
Review
"McCracken….proves her mastery of short fiction with these 12 tightly structured, searingly realistic stories....An astonishingly powerful collection worth multiple readings." — Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review)
About the Author
Elizabeth McCracken is the author of seven books, including The Souvenir Museum, Bowlaway, Thunderstruck & Other Stories (winner of the 2014 Story Prize and long-listed for the National Book Award), and The Giant's House (a National Book Award finalist). Her stories have appeared in Best American Short Stories, won three Pushcart Prizes, a National Magazine Award, and an O. Henry Prize. She has served on the faculty at the Iowa Writers' Workshop and currently holds the James Michener Chair for Fiction at the University of Texas at Austin.