Reviews
"Surely Munro's best yet." The New York Times Book Review "She is the living writer most likely to be read in a hundred years." Mona Simpson, The Atlantic Monthly "One of the foremost practitioners of the art of the short story. . . . These tales have the intimacy of a family photo album and the organic feel of real life." The New York Times "A writer to cherish. . . . The sheer spaciousness of Munro's storytelling, her gift for surprising us with the truth about ourselves, has transcended national boundaries." Los Angeles Times Book Review "In Munro's hands, as in Chekhov's, a short story is more than big enough to hold the worldand to astonish us, again and again." -Chicago Tribune, "Surely Munro's best yet." - The New York Times Book Review "She is the living writer most likely to be read in a hundred years." -Mona Simpson, The Atlantic Monthly "One of the foremost practitioners of the art of the short story. . . . These tales have the intimacy of a family photo album and the organic feel of real life." - The New York Times "A writer to cherish. . . . The sheer spaciousness of Munro's storytelling, her gift for surprising us with the truth about ourselves, has transcended national boundaries." - Los Angeles Times Book Review "In Munro's hands, as in Chekhov's, a short story is more than big enough to hold the world-and to astonish us, again and again." --Chicago Tribune Praise from fellow writers: "Her work felt revolutionary when I came to it, and it still does." --Jhumpa Lahiri "She is one of the handful of writers, some living, most dead, whom I have in mind when I say that fiction is my religion." --Jonthan Franzen "The authority she brings to the page is just lovely." --Elizabeth Strout "She's the most savage writer I've ever read, also the most tender, the most honest, the most perceptive." --Jeffery Eugenides "Alice Munro can move characters through time in a way that no other writer can."--Julian Barnes "She is a short-story writer who...reimagined what a story can do." --Loorie Moore "There's probably no one alive who's better at the craft of the short story." --Jim Shepard "A true master of the form." --Salman Rushdie "A wonderful writer." --Joyce Carol Oates, "Surely Munro's best yet." - The New York Times Book Review "She is the living writer most likely to be read in a hundred years." -Mona Simpson, The Atlantic Monthly "One of the foremost practitioners of the art of the short story. . . . These tales have the intimacy of a family photo album and the organic feel of real life." - The New York Times "A writer to cherish. . . . The sheer spaciousness of Munro's storytelling, her gift for surprising us with the truth about ourselves, has transcended national boundaries." - Los Angeles Times Book Review "In Munro's hands, as in Chekhov's, a short story is more than big enough to hold the world-and to astonish us, again and again." --Chicago Tribune Praise from fellow writers: "Her work felt revolutionary when I came to it, and it still does." --Jhumpa Lahiri "She is one of the handful of writers, some living, most dead, whom I have in mind when I say that fiction is my religion." --Jonthan Franzen "The authority she brings to the page is just lovely." --Elizabeth Strout "She's the most savage writer I've ever read, also the most tender, the most honest, the most perceptive." --Jeffery Eugenides "Alice Munro can move characters through time in a way that no other writer can."--Julian Barnes "She is a short-story writer who...reimagined what a story can do." --Loorie Moore "There's probably no one alive who's better at the craft of the short story." --Jim Shepard "A true master of the form." --Salman Rushdie "A wonderful writer." --Joyce Carol Oates, "Surely Munro's best yet." The New York Times Book Review "She is the living writer most likely to be read in a hundred years." Mona Simpson,The Atlantic Monthly "One of the foremost practitioners of the art of the short story. . . . These tales have the intimacy of a family photo album and the organic feel of real life." The New York Times "A writer to cherish. . . . The sheer spaciousness of Munro's storytelling, her gift for surprising us with the truth about ourselves, has transcended national boundaries." Los Angeles Times Book Review "In Munro's hands, as in Chekhov's, a short story is more than big enough to hold the worldand to astonish us, again and again."-Chicago Tribune From the Trade Paperback edition.
Synopsis
WINNER OF THE NOBEL PRIZE(R) IN LITERATURE 2013 In the her tenth collection (the title story of which is the basis for the new film Hateship Loveship) , Alice Munro achieves new heights, creating narratives that loop and swerve like memory, and conjuring up characters as thorny and contradictory as people we know ourselves. A tough-minded housekeeper jettisons the habits of a lifetime because of a teenager's practical joke. A college student visiting her brassy, unconventional aunt stumbles on an astonishing secret and its meaning in her own life. An incorrigible philanderer responds with unexpected grace to his wife's nursing-home romance. Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage is Munro at her best, tirelessly observant, serenely free of illusion, deeply and gloriously humane., NATIONAL BESTSELLER * From Nobel Prize-winning author Alice Munro come nine short stories with "the intimacy of a family photo album and the organic feel of real life" ( The New York Times ) "In Munro's hands, as in Chekhov's, a short story is more than big enough to hold the world--and to astonish us, again and again."-- Chicago Tribune FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD * A TIME BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR In the nine breathtaking stories that make up this collection, Alice Munro creates narratives that loop and swerve like memory, conjuring up characters as thorny and contradictory as people we know ourselves. The fate of a strong-minded housekeeper with a "frizz of reddish hair," just entering the dangerous country of old-maidhood, is unintentionally (and deliciously) reversed by a teenaged girl's practical joke. A college student visiting her aunt for the first time and recognizing the family furniture stumbles on a long-hidden secret and its meaning in her own life. An inveterate philanderer finds the tables turned when he puts his wife into an old-age home. A young cancer patient stunned by good news discovers a perfect bridge to her suddenly regained future. A woman recollecting an afternoon's wild lovemaking with a stranger realizes how the memory of that encounter has both changed for her and sustained her through a lifetime. Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage is Munro at her best--tirelessly observant, serenely free of illusion, deeply and gloriously humane.
