The End Is Only a Beginning

Boyle, a virtuoso of the American short story, creates daring imaginative leaps as he affirms the sheer joy of storytelling in this propulsive new work.

A timely masterpiece, The End Is Only a Beginning underscores T. C. Boyle’s reputation as “one of the greatest storytellers in this country” (Ron Charles). As readers have come to expect, Boyle’s range is wide in these twelve new stories, which are cast in a number of voices and modes and set not just in the U.S., but in France, Spain, Japan, and the Indian subcontinent. Here we have stories that are both cosmopolitan and intimately human, diagnosing the contradictions that define our contemporary malaise: a mother and son in “Sanctuary” run a butterfly sanctuary blocking the construction path of a border wall; a husband and wife in “Cold Summer” flee modernity and contend with a billionaire’s decision to freeze the world; and a small village cowers in terror as a tiger eats its residents in “The Maneater.” Our greatest literary prestidigitator, Boyle reaffirms his stature as one of America’s foremost writers.