Problems with People
Stories
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- £6.99
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- £6.99
Publisher Description
David Guterson, bestselling author of Snow Falling on Cedars, returns with ten sharply observed, funny and wise new stories exploring the mysteries of love and our complex desires to connect with others within the dramas of daily life
'Achingly touching collection … Everywhere Guterson turns he finds parents cut-off from their children, citizens at odds with their country, and all of us lost in an illusory Google universe. Superb' Independent
A new couple's first night together is overshadowed by a decades-old story of a lost love. A man takes a two hour walk across Kathmandu to visit his estranged wife in hospital in midst of a Maoist strike. A man accompanies his Holocaust survivor father on a trip to his German city of birth. A newly diagnosed dementia patient misses his last opportunity to see his youngest son. A family is forced to sit through a dinner-time account of the death of their teenage son as their food turns cold on the table. And an unexpected and tender friendship develops between an ailing man and his dog walker.
In Problems with People relationships solidify, crumble and are forged anew. These ten sharply observed stories are imbued with David Guterson's signature gifts for characterisation, psychological nuance, emotional suspense and evocation of the natural world. By turns funny, thought provoking and deeply moving, Guterson deftly taps into the sadness, beauty, joy and complexities of our everyday lives.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
People struggle to connect with each other in this succinct but ambitious collection of 10 stories from the author of Snow Falling on Cedars. Some return to Guterson's customary Pacific Northwestern milieu, but elsewhere he ranges abroad, with settings including Katmandu, Berlin, and South Africa. "Paradise" observes a man and a woman struggling through the awkwardness of their first few dates, while in "Tenant," a landlord obsesses over a new renter whom he has never met. "Politics" explores the superficial yet fraught relationship between a beggar and those he solicits, and "Krassavitseh" follows a father and son as they navigate Holocaust memorials in Germany with an enigmatic tour guide. Though Guterson's characters differ in their ages, locations, and worries, all of their stories turn on the thin lines that separate friendship from acquaintance, and the strange from the familiar. While the stories lack depth, they gain resonance from Guterson's eagerness to remind us of the boundless potential of everyday encounters.
