The Penguin Book of the Modern Americ..., John Freeman
The Penguin Book of the Modern Americ..., John Freeman
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The Penguin Book of the Modern American Short Story

Author: John Freeman

Narrator: Erin Bennett, Scott Brick, Cassandra Campbell, Frankie Corzo, Ramón de Ocampo, John Freeman, Mark Feuerstein, Kim Mai Guest, Deepti Gupta, Dominic Hoffman, Lisa Renee Pitts, George Saunders

Unabridged: 17 hr 11 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Penguin Audio

Published: 05/04/2021


Synopsis

A selection of the best and most representative contemporary American short fiction from 1970 to 2020, including such authors as Ursula K. LeGuin, Toni Cade Bambara, Jhumpa Lahiri, Sandra Cisneros, and Ted Chiang, hand-selected by celebrated editor and anthologist John Freeman.

IN THE PAST fifty years, the American short story has changed dramatically. New voices, forms, and mixtures of genres have brought this unique US genre a thrilling burst of energy. This rich anthology celebrates this avalanche of talent. Beginning in 1970, it culls together a half century of powerful American short stories from all genres, including--for the first time in a literary anthology--science fiction, horror, and fantasy, placing writers such as Usula Le Guin, Ken Liu and Stephen King next to some of the often-taught geniuses of the form--Grace Paley, Toni Cade Bambara, Sandra Cisneros, and Denis Johnson. Culling widely, Freeman, the former editor of Granta and now of his own literary annual, brings forward some astonishing work to be regarded in a new light. Often overlooked tales by Charles Johnson and Toni Morrison will recast the shape and texture of today's enlarging atmosphere of literary dialogue. Stories by Lauren Groff and Ted Chiang raise the spectre of engagement in ecocidal times. Short tales by Tobias Wolff, George Saunders, and Lydia Davis rub shoulders with near novellas by Susan Sontag and Andrew Holleran. This audiobook will be a treasure trove for listeners and teachers alike.

About The Author

John Freeman is the editor of Freeman's, a literary annual of new writing, and executive editor at Alfred A. Knopf. His books include How to Read a Novelist and Dictionary of the Undoing, as well as Tales of Two Americas, an anthology about income inequality in America, and Tales of Two Planets, an anthology of new writing about inequality and the climate crisis globally. He is also the author of two poetry collections, Maps and The Park. His work is translated into more than twenty languages, and has appeared in The New Yorker, The Paris Review, and The New York Times. The former editor of Granta, he teaches writing at New York University.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Tim on October 03, 2024

My favorite stories were authored by Raymond Carver, Joy Williams, Lydia Davis, Lucia Berlin, Nathan Englander, Percival Everett, and Edwidge Danticat.......more

Goodreads review by Claire on June 30, 2021

My librarian husband and I have started a project (we like projects). Every day for past 37 days we have read one of these stories to each other, marked them out of five, and talked about what we thought about them - what we felt worked and what didn't. Surprisingly perhaps, we were mostly agreed: t......more

Goodreads review by Paul on January 12, 2025

A little bit so-so for me; best ones were : "Bicycles, Muscles, Cigarettes" by Raymond Carver "Girl" by Jamaica Kincaid (only two pages but wow!) "The Way we Live Now" by Susan Sontag "River of Names" by Dorothy Allison "Emergency" by Denis Johnson and of course "The Things they Carried" by Tim O'Brien - th......more

Goodreads review by Vishy on November 15, 2024

Sometime back, I suddenly started feeling a lot of love towards short stories, and I started looking for short story collections. That is when I found this collection. This collection covers a period of fifty years from 1970 to 2020. It has 37 short stories. Because it covers the contemporary era, mo......more

Goodreads review by Mark on December 04, 2022

I don't often read short stories, but I enjoyed this collection, which spans a period from 1972 to 2019. With the exception of a couple authors whose works have never connected with me, I read everything, and I was glad I did. Of course, any short story anthology will be a mixed bag, because the sty......more


Quotes

“Freeman’s excellent introduction to this new anthology of modern short stories will be useful to readers who are unfamiliar with the format; for students of the short story, it’s a refreshing overview . . . a short story for any mood. . . . This anthology sets itself apart by providing an inclusive starting point for readers interested in discovering the power of the short story; it is golden for those who already recognize that power.” Library Journal (starred)

“A well-selected anthology of short fiction, ranging from long to flash, representing the last half-century . . . A fresh gathering that highlights the work of mostly well-known story writers through their lesser-known works.” Kirkus