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Nine Stories
by Don DeLillo
From one of the greatest writers of our time, his first collection of short stories, written between 1979 and 2011, chronicling - and foretelling - three decades of American life.
Set in Greece, the Caribbean, Manhattan, a white-collar prison and outer space, these nine stories are a mesmerizing introduction to Don DeLillo's iconic voice, from the rich, startling, jazz-infused rhythms of his early work to the spare, distilled, monastic language of the later stories.
In "Creation," a couple at the end of a cruise somewhere in the West Indies can't get off the island - flights canceled, unconfirmed reservations, a dysfunctional economy. In "Human Moments in World War III," two men orbiting the earth, charged with gathering intelligence and reporting to Colorado Command, hear the voices of American radio, from a half century earlier. In the title story, Sisters Edgar and Grace, nuns working the violent streets of the South Bronx, confirm the neighborhood's miracle, the apparition of a dead child, Esmeralda.
Nuns, astronauts, athletes, terrorists and travelers, the characters in The Angel Esmeralda propel themselves into the world and define it. DeLillo's sentences are instantly recognizable, as original as the splatter of Jackson Pollock or the luminous rectangles of Mark Rothko. These nine stories describe an extraordinary journey of one great writer whose prescience about world events and ear for American language changed the literary landscape.
"[W]hat distinguishes DeLillo's work is the way in which he engages the world rather than settling for the literary parlor tricks of some virtuoso experimentalists." - Kirkus Reviews
"For readers of literary fiction, this book is a good introduction to DeLillo's iconic postmodern style, though those new to the genre may find it a somewhat hard pill to swallow." - Library Journal
"DeLillo's keen interest in the human experience of American historical and cultural moments is on clear display, and his full expressive range - from steady spareness (sometimes verging on disorienting frigidity) to roguish attitude and tender intimacy - is showcased well." - Publishers Weekly
This information about The Angel Esmeralda was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Don DeLillo is the author of seventeen novels, including Falling Man, Libra and White Noise, and three plays. He has won the National Book Award, the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction and the Jerusalem Prize. In 2006, Underworld was named one of the three best novels of the last twenty-five years by The New York Times Book Review, and in 2000 it won the William Dean Howells Medal of the American Academy of Arts and Letters for the most distinguished work of fiction of the past five years. DeLillo also won the Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction in 2013.
Name Pronunciation
Don DeLillo: D'Lih Lo
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Courage - a perfect sensibility of the measure of danger, and a mental willingness to endure it.
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