To Be a Man, Nicole Krauss
To Be a Man, Nicole Krauss
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To Be a Man
Stories

Author: Nicole Krauss

Narrator: Nicole Krauss

Unabridged: 7 hr 2 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: HarperAudio

Published: 11/03/2020


Synopsis

O, The Oprah Magazine's 20 Best Titles of the YearTime Magazine's 100 Books to Read in 2020 Financial Times' Best Books of 2020Esquire's Best Books of 2020New York Times Editors' Choice
Lit Hub's Best Books of 2020 Bustle's Best Short Story Collections of 2020Electric Literature's Favorite Short Story Collections of 2020Library Journal's Best Short Stories of 2020“Superb. . . . Krauss’s depictions of the nuances of sex and love, intimacy and dependence, call to mind the work of Natalia Ginzburg in their psychological profundity, their intellectual rigor. . . . Krauss’s stories capture characters at moments in their lives when they’re hungry for experience and open to possibilities, and that openness extends to the stories themselves: narratives too urgent and alive for neat plotlines, simplistic resolutions or easy answers.”  —Molly Antopol, New York Times Book Review “From a contemporary master, an astounding collection of ten globetrotting stories, each one a powerful dissection of the thorny connections between men and women. . . . Each story is masterfully crafted and deeply contemplative, barreling toward a shimmering, inevitable conclusion, proving once again that Krauss is one of our most formidable talents in fiction.” —EsquireIn one of her strongest works of fiction yet, Nicole Krauss plunges fearlessly into the struggle to understand what it is to be a man and what it is to be a woman, and the arising tensions that have existed from the very beginning of time. Set in our contemporary moment, and moving across the globe from Switzerland, Japan, and New York City to Tel Aviv, Los Angeles, and South America, the stories in To Be a Man feature male characters as fathers, lovers, friends, children, seducers, and even a lost husband who may never have been a husband at all. The way these stories mirror one other and resonate is beautiful, with a balance so finely tuned that the book almost feels like a novel. Echoes ring through stages of life: aging parents and new-born babies; young women’s coming of age and the newfound, somewhat bewildering sexual power that accompanies it; generational gaps and unexpected deliveries of strange new leases on life; mystery and wonder at a life lived or a future waiting to unfold. To Be a Man illuminates with a fierce, unwavering light the forces driving human existence: sex, power, violence, passion, self-discovery, growing older. Profound, poignant, and brilliant, Krauss’s stories are at once startling and deeply moving, but always revealing of all-too-human weakness and strength. 

About Nicole Krauss

Nicole Krauss is the author of the novels Forest Dark, Great House, The History of Love, and Man Walks Into a Room. Her work has appeared in the New Yorker, Harper’s, Esquire, and The Best American Short Stories, and her books have been translated into more than thirty-five languages. She is currently the inaugural writer-in-residence at Columbia University’s Mind, Brain, and Behavior Institute. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.


Reviews

I gave up on Nicole Krauss’s last novel, Forest Dark. After 100 pages, I wasn’t connecting to the characters and I found it a chore to read. Maybe it was my mood at the time - who knows? However, that didn’t keep me from wanting to read this collection of short stories because I loved The History of......more

Goodreads review by Candi

It’s been more than five years since I found myself swept away by Nicole Krauss’s The History of Love. As is my usual habit when I adore a book, I quickly added her backlist to my poor to-read list. After neglecting those for too long, I found myself drawn to this more recent(ish) offering of her sh......more

Goodreads review by Violet

I feel like I could go on reading Nicole Krauss's stories all year. I love the quality of her intelligence. All these stories are about crossroads moments in a history, moments in which we are vulnerable to changes of heart. Sexuality, as pathfinder of fate and identity, as a means of both fortifyin......more