After his widely celebrated debut, Mr. Peanut, Adam Ross now presents a darkly compelling collection of stories about brothers, loners, lovers, and lives full of good intentions, misunderstandings, and obscured motives.
A hotshot lawyer, burdened by years of guilt and resentment, comes to the rescue of his irresponsible, irresistible younger brother. An unsettling story resonates between the dysfunctional couple telling it and their listening friends as well. A lonely professor, frequently regaled with unbelievably entertaining tales by the office handyman, suddenly fears he's being asked to abet a murderous fugitive. An awkward but nervy adolescent uses his brief career as a child actor to further his designs on a WASPy friend's seemingly untouchable sister. A man down on his luck closes in on a mysterious, much-needed job offer while doing a good turn for his fragile neighbor, with results at once surreal and hilarious. And when two college kids goad each other on in an escalating series of breathtaking dares, the outcome is as tragic as it is ambiguous.
"Competent if unspectacular collection... While Ross is clearly talented, the short story isn't his métier." - Publishers Weekly
"It is the precision of Ross' dark and dazzling prose, often laced with a touch of the surreal, that generates the stories' intensity and makes them so disquieting." - Booklist
"Starred Review. One of Ross' great strengths is walking that eternally fine line between showing the reader things... and the heartbeat monitoring of a character's internal life." - Kirkus
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Adam Ross was born and raised in New York City. He graduated with departmental honors in English from Vassar College, and holds an M.A. and M.F.A. in creative writing from Hollins Unversity and Washington University respectively. Adam lives in Nashville, Tennessee, with his wife and their two daughters.
He is the author of Mr. Peanut, a 2010 New York Times Notable Book, that was also named one of the best books of the year by The New Yorker, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The New Republic, and The Economist. It has been published in 16 countries. Ladies and Gentlemen, his short story collection, was included in Kirkus Reviews Best Books of 2011 and included "In the Basement," a finalist for the 2012 BBC International Story Award. Ross was a 20132014 Hodder Fellow at Princeton ...
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