A Perfect Stranger - by Roxana Robinson (Paperback)

About the Book

The first short story collection in nine years by the author of "Sweetwater" and "This Is My Daughter," both "New York Times" Notable Books.

Book Synopsis

In Roxana Robinson's lucid and elegant prose, her characters' inner worlds open up to us, revealing private emotional cores that are familiar in their needs, their secrets, and their longings. These people tell us the truth-not only about themselves, their relationships, and their lives, but about ourselves as well. A Perfect Stranger powerfully and affectingly examines the complex, intricate network of experiences that binds us to one another. These stories are tender, raw, lovely, fine-and they reaffirm Roxana Robinson's place at the forefront of modern literature.

Review Quotes

"Elegantly written yet emotionally raw . . . [with] the urgency of an unputdownable thriller."
-The Washington Post

"**** . . . Robinson fills her pages with detailed, sensuous writing that strikes a deep emotional chord. . . . [A] splendid collection."
-People

"[Robinson's stories chart] the ebb and flow of affection and fury within relationships [and] carry us across the spectrum of human experience."
-The New York Times Book Review

"If stories were paintings, Roxana Robinson's short works in A Perfect Stranger . . . could be seen for what they really are: little marvels of light and shadow."
-O: The Oprah Magazine

"Brilliant . . . vivid stories . . . a mesmerizing writer."
-The Seattle Times

"Start in on any sentence and I'm absolutely sure you'll read to the end of the story, and of the book, and you'll come out of it feeling grateful, deeply stirred, seriously happy."
-Alice Munro

About the Author

ROXANA ROBINSON is the author of two novels, Sweetwater and This Is My Daughter; a biography of Georgia O'Keeffe; and two previous short-story collections, A Glimpse of Scarlet and Asking for Love. Four of her works have been named Notable Books of the Year by The New York Times. She has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the MacDowell Colony. Robinson's fiction has appeared in Best American Short Stories, The Atlantic, The New Yorker, Harper's, Daedalus, and Vogue. She lives in New York City and Westchester County, New York.