If I Loved You, I Would Tell You This..., Robin Black
If I Loved You, I Would Tell You This..., Robin Black
List: $17.50 | Sale: $12.25
Club: $8.75

If I Loved You, I Would Tell You This
Stories

Author: Robin Black

Narrator: Mark Deakins, Kimberly Farr, Ann Marie Lee, Kirsten Potter

Unabridged: 8 hr 39 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 03/30/2010

Synopsis

Heralding the arrival of a stunning new voice in American fiction, Robin Black’s If I Loved You, I Would Tell You This takes readers into the minds and hearts of people navigating the unsettling transitions that life presents to us all.
 
Written with maturity and insight, and in beautiful, clear-eyed prose, these stories plumb the depths of love, loss, and hope. A father struggles to forge an independent identity as his blind daughter prepares for college. A mother comes to terms with her adult daughter’s infidelity, even as she keeps a disturbing secret of her own. An artist mourns the end of a romance while painting a dying man’s portrait. An accident on a trip to Italy and an unexpected connection with a stranger cause a woman to question her lifelong assumptions about herself.

Brilliant, hopeful, and fearlessly honest, If I Loved You, I Would Tell You This illuminates the truths of human relationships, truths we come to recognize in these characters and in ourselves.

About The Author

Robin Black is the author of Life Drawing and the critically acclaimed short story collection If I Loved You, I Would Tell You This, a finalist for the Frank O’Connor Short Story Prize. Her stories and essays have appeared in numerous publications, including One Story, Colorado Review, The Georgia Review, The Southern Review, O: The Oprah Magazine, The New York Times Magazine, and the anthology The Best Creative Nonfiction, Vol. I. A recipient of fellowships from the Leeway Foundation and the MacDowell Colony, Black was the 2012 Distinguished Visiting Writer at Bryn Mawr College and has taught most recently in the Brooklyn College MFA Program. She lives with her family in Philadelphia.Mark Deakins’ television appearances include Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Star Trek®: Voyager. His film credits include The Devil’s Advocate and Star Trek®: Insurrection. He is the writer, director, and producer of the short film The Smith Interviews.Kimberly Farr has appeared on Broadway, at the New York Shakespeare Festival, the Roundabout Theatre, Playwright's Horizons, and the American Place. She created the role of Eve in Arthur Miller's first and only musical, Up from Paradise, which was directed by the author. She appeared with Vanessa Redgrave in the Broadway production of The Lady from the Sea. She has also acted in regional theaters from Los Angeles to New Haven, Connecticut, including the original production of The 1940's Radio Hour at Washington, DC's Arena Stage.Ann Marie Lee is a Los Angeles–based actress with television credits that include ER, Law and Order: Criminal Intent, and Nip/Tuck. Her stage performances for Broadway national tours and regional theater include Peter Pan, As You Like It, Heartbreak House, and The Cherry Orchard.Kirsten Potter has performed at theaters across the country, including the Geffen Playhouse, Mark Taper Forum, Laguna Playhouse, Seattle Repertory Theatre, and Arena Stage. Her film and TV work include Judging Amy, Bones, and The Eyes Have It; and she has voiced numerous roles for animation and video games. Kirsten has narrated numerous audiobooks, including Hattie Big Sky, If I Stay, Madapple, The Neighbor, Sammy's House, and The Snowball. She has received three AudioFile Earphones Awards for her outstanding narration.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Betsy on February 09, 2024

This is a collection of elegantly written stories about people in relationships. I read them slowly, savoring them, but for the life of me I could not remember them after I’d finished. I went back through the Table of Contents reviewing each story’s ending after I finished, and sometimes the stories......more

Goodreads review by Jill on March 24, 2015

Decades ago, Ernest Hemingway said that the most important thing was to “write what’s true.” By that criterion, Robin Black’s collection of 10 short stories is an unqualified success. All of them are quite good and some of them are downright exceptional. She writes about the truest things in life –......more

Goodreads review by Bonnie on November 04, 2014

Robin Black is a truly gifted writer. I loved this book of short stories as well as her novel, 'Life Drawing'. The Stories in 'If I Loved You, I Would Tell You This' run the gamut in terms of subject matter. However, many of them deal with loss and the meaning of spoken and unspoken language. I loved......more

Goodreads review by Karen on August 03, 2015

4 stars for the writing... I do love her writing especially in the novel Life Drawing... these short stories left me wanting more... no endings to them.. I guess I'm just not a fan of short stories.......more

Goodreads review by Alan on January 28, 2015

There was a point when I thought I’ll not go on, but like Beckett decided I must go on. That wasn’t because of the quality of the stories – throughout the writing is excellent, firmly in the (as it says on the cover of my copy) Munro-Bloom-Moore firmament and as good – but because every story revolv......more

Quotes

“I want to shout about how just when you thought no one could write a story with any tinge of freshness let alone originality about childhood. . . about marriage . . . about old age, Black has done it. . . . Black delivers real emotion, the kind that gives you pause. . . . Will Robin Black win [the Pen/Hemingway Prize] for this book? If I were a judge, she would.”—Alan Cheuse, Chicago Tribune

“Pitch-perfect . . . so deft, so understated, and so compelling that you have to slow down to savor each vignette. . . . Fans of Mary Gaitskill, Amy Bloom, and Miranda July will feel like they’ve found gold in a river when they discover Robin Black. . . . [A] writer to watch.”—O, The Oprah Magazine

“Each story reads like a mini-novel . . . worlds are contained in a single page. And the writing . . . oh, the writing . . . There’s no narrative cohesion, no point.  Rather, If I Loved You is a ‘Fantastic Voyage’ into the bloodstream of the human species. . . . Maybe it’s midlife maturity, maybe it’s raw talent, but If I Loved You leaves you longing for more."—San Francisco Chronicle

“Incisive . . . peopled with characters so fully imagined you’ll feel they’re in the room.”—People

"Exquisitely distilled tales of loss and reckoning . . . [Black] evokes a Sparkian blend of skepticism and grace."—Vogue

“Robin Black stakes out some of the emotional territory occupied by Alice Munro, Amy Bloom and Lorrie Moore. . . . A nuanced portrait of the heart that repays careful reading.”—Financial Times

“Considered and rewarding . . . Black writes with grace and simplicity and there is a quiet strength in her sentences.”—The Times Literary Supplement

“Powerful and touching . . . sparkling with poetic vision . . . In every story, [Black] creates wonderful little images, sees symbols, double meanings, poetry everywhere. . . . Black has an enviable ability to create wholly believable characters, people you'd swear you know, and by showing them in passage through life's transitions, she reveals the source of their longings. . . . A fine first collection.”—Philadelphia Inquirer

“Robin Black's lovely debut collects 10 stories written over eight years, each demonstrating the rewards of a long gestation—contemplative pacing and a polished craft. . . . . Should Alice Munro ever fulfill her threat of retirement, readers can turn to Black for solace.  Grade: A."—Cleveland Plain Dealer

“Nuanced, perfectly pitched and striking . . . [Black’s stories] swell with feeling . . . leaving us wanting more as we read each story every more slowly as the finale approaches.”—The Australian

“Black proves herself to be a keen observer of the human condition as she shows how her characters navigate their inner worlds. . . Sympathetic but never saccharine.”—The Daily Beast

“Each story . . . in this collection is a mini work of art. . . The stories stay with you. They teach life lessons and change the way you view the world.”—Irish Examiner

Awards

  • Frank O'Connor International Short Story Prize
Add to Cart
Add to Wish List