Nine Inches, Tom Perrotta
Nine Inches, Tom Perrotta
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Nine Inches
Stories

Author: Tom Perrotta

Narrator: William Dufris

Unabridged: 6 hr 55 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 09/10/2013

Synopsis

A stunning short story collection from the New York Times bestselling author of The Leftovers and Little Children, featuring stories focusing on Tom Perrotta's familiar suburban nuclear families

The new collection from the New York Times bestselling author of The Leftovers and Little Children, featuring stories focusing on Perrotta's familiar suburban nuclear families

Tom Perrotta's first book, Bad Haircut, consisted of linked stories featuring a shared protagonist. Now, nineteen years later, he has written and compiled his first true short story collection. This twelve story book features a group set in Perrotta's trademark suburban setting, focusing on the fissures in families and unexpected connections among members of typical American communities, including "Senior Season" and "Nine Inches". Others offerings here showcase Perrotta's assured, smooth writing, but may surprise fans with new protagonists and concerns. One of these twistier stories is "The Smile on Happy Chang's Face", which was the Boston Book Festival's first all-city One City, One Story selection in 2010.

Following up on his dramatic and bestselling novel The Leftovers, now an HBO series, Nine Inches is a varied and interesting audiobook from one of our most thoughtful and elegant writers.

About Tom Perrotta

Tom Perrotta is the author of several works of fiction: Bad Haircut, The Wishbones, Election, and the New York Times bestselling Joe College and Little Children. Election and Little Children were made into critically acclaimed movies. The Leftovers and Mrs. Fletcher were both adapted into HBO series. He lives outside of Boston.

About William Dufris

William Dufris began his audio career in London, England. He co-found the audio production company The Story Circle, Ltd in the UK. In the US, he founded Mind’s Eye Productions and co-founded Rocky Coast Radio Theatre in addition to The AudioComics Company, for which he is producer, director, actor and engineer. Durfis was nominated six times as a finalist for the APA's prestigious Audie Awards. He garnered eighteen Golden Earphones Awards through AudioFile magazine, which honored him as one of The Best Voices at the End of the Century. Of his work, AudioFile said, "William Dufris commands a dazzling array of voices that bring to life the dozens of audiobooks he’s narrated." His audiobook credits include many of Newt Gingrich and William R. Forstchen, Ph.D.'s works, such as Days of Infamy and Pearl Harbor, in addition to George McGovern’s Abraham Lincoln, Neal Stephenson’s Cryptonomicon and John Scalzi’s The Ghost Bridges.Dufris acted on stage and in television and is best known as the original North American voice of the cartoon character Bob in Nickelodeon's popular children's show, Bob the Builder. Additionally, he worked with legendary director Dirk Maggs on his audio drama productions of Spider-Man.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Barbara on September 16, 2013

I’m a big fan of Perrotta’s. This collection of short stories keeps me in his fan base. He captures suburban life so well: darkly, comically, but very well and with great wit. Perrotta sees the grittier side of suburbia. His characters are finely developed and real. If one has had the “pleasure” of......more

Goodreads review by James on September 30, 2013

I've enjoyed very much Tom Perrotta's novels, especially The Abstinence Teacher and The Leftovers, and now I can add to that list his new collections of short stories, Nine Inches. The title story actually involves two teachers who may have missed each other like ships passing in the night and who ar......more

Goodreads review by Neil on August 03, 2016

I've seen the movie adaptations of Little Children and Election, but this is my first dip into Perrotta's writing. There has been a lot of hype about him from my circle of friends and the press, and I suspect this is precisely why I've been avoiding him. The book blurbs on this ARC alone make me cri......more

Goodreads review by William on February 10, 2017

Insightful, character driven, and hilarious at times, Perrotta's collection Nine Inches is so worth the read. I'm glad I stumbled onto his work again years after reading Election. "Backrub" "Grade my teacher" "Nine Inches" and "One-Four-Five" are all five-star stories. Some of the others didn't keep......more

Goodreads review by Scott on October 14, 2013

I’m ashamed to admit that this is my first Perrotta book. A friend recommended it to me, and I took his advice mostly because I respect his opinion and I enjoy short stories. Well, I can honestly say that Perrotta instantly made me a fan for life with this collection. Nine Inches is comprised of seve......more

Quotes

“The acclaimed novelist displays perfect tonal pitch in this story collection, as nobody explores the darker sides of suburbia with a lighter touch.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred)

“Told with wit and grace, Perrotta's story collection lays bare the shifting relationships we all suffer and seldom comprehend, presenting characters who are ambushed by the hidden intentions of people they thought they knew.” —Publishers Weekly

“In this strong collection of short stories, Perrotta once again peeks behind the living-room curtains of manicured suburbia and imagines characters whose lives are less than tidy.” —People

“[A] wickedly funny collection of suburbia-skewering stories.” —Harper's Bazaar

“Perrotta's stuff is dark, but it goes down so easy, especially when bite-size.” —New York magazine

“The novelist who so perfectly captured the insanity of suburbia in The Leftovers and Little Children returns to the form that made him famous in this darkly comic collection of stories.” —Entertainment Weekly

“The stories hang together so beautifully, the writing is so stylistically consistent, and the themes are so closely related, the book comes across like a novel, or a collection of interlocking stories. It's as if we're wandering through a single community in a particular town, as in James Joyce's Dubliners or in so many of Ann Beattie's and Raymond Carver's collections. We're in PerrottaWorld, where the stories and characters and their concerns all seem to rhyme with one another.” —Boston Globe

“Perrotta fixates on small-town types whose complex quirks make them not extraordinary or noble but average; what is extraordinary is Perrotta's empathic insight into how his characters cope--or, short of that, forget.” —Elle

“The descendant of such chroniclers of small-town America as Thornton Wilder, John O'Hara, and Willa Cather...Perrotta's language never announces itself; it recedes into the background, allowing the characters, with their convincing and contemporary dialogue, to drive the narrative in a way that sounds organic and true.” —New York Times

“Tom Perrotta has proven time and again that he has a tremendous gift for telling darkly comedic tales of suburban ennui, as seen through the eyes of a seemingly endless stable of hilariously sad (and sadly hilarious) protagonists. Perrotta's latest book, an ingratiating collection of sublimely paced short stories, filled with masterful character sketches and comically vexatious scenarios, extends his streak.” —Time Out

“The ray of light in Perrotta's new stories comes from his characters' belated recognition of their foibles and failures, and their earnest and quintessentially American yearning to do better.” —National Public Radio

Awards

  • Bookish Best Books of the Year
  • USA Today Best Books of the Year
  • Audie Award Finalist
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