Jane of Hearts and Other Stories
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
"A scintillating collection of short stories and a novella that encompass pathos and hilarity and range from breathtakingly succinct yet richly faceted tales, like the diamonds that figure in several unexpectedly connected stories, to longer works iridescent with tangible and psychological detail.”―Booklist
"In elegant prose, Weber offers intimate views on her characters’ inner lives. At its best, this offers an ode to the universality of change.”―Publishers Weekly
“Weber’s genius in these startling, haunting stories is to find the momentary connections in things that make up or derail a life, be it an artichoke and a dead woman’s earrings, or a plant and a hospice worker. Written in prose as dazzling and finecrafted as diamonds, Weber’s stories show us ordinary people in extraordinary moments, doing what the best literature does―they make us look at our own world differently.”―Caroline Leavitt, author of Pictures of You and Cruel Beautiful World
At the heart of every story in this collection, Katharine Weber has located a compelling character in medias res, at a moment when situation, desire, and identity are intersecting and sometimes colliding. Children go door to door selling poison mushrooms. An elderly New Yorker on the brink of losing her freedom bolts for one last dignified adventure. A girl is employed to babysit a sleeping baby she is forbidden to see. In the title novella, lonely children roaming their Connecticut neighborhood discover a forgotten bomb shelter, which they make their secret headquarters. Jane of Hearts offers Katharine Weber’s readers a lively assortment of her short fiction, each story a precise and nuanced investigation of its moments.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Weber (Still Life with Monkey) delivers an insightful collection that finds characters in moments of transition as they act on their impulses. "Mr. Antler's Princess Dust" chronicles the summer romps of fourth-grader Barbara Antler and friend Harriet Rose as they sell potentially poisonous mushrooms to neighbors and make special concoctions for Barbara's little sister. In "Sleeping," Harriet babysits for an infant whose mother forbids her to check on the child. "Sunday, Upstate" is a short but heartbreaking story about a wife and mother of four's quiet contemplations during a family trip gone sour. A young girl repeatedly rides a roller coaster, hypnotized by the bright red button that controls it, and makes a life-altering decision in "Safe." The title novella, which goes on a bit too long but offers some of the best writing, depicts Jane, an only child whose single mother works late, befriending Tate. Jane soon invites Tate into her misadventures, and the pair break into neighbors' houses to steal small tokens like seashells and Monopoly houses, and to search for the essence of family that Jane craves. In elegant prose, Weber offers intimate views on her characters' inner lives. At its best, this offers an ode to the universality of change.
