Lorrie Moore

'She writes with such panache, such extraordinary perception and wit.' Elizabeth Day'A forensically brave writer, with a semantic virtuosity rarely equalled.' Telegraph'Unmissable.' Marie Claire'Hilarious and distressing, entertaining and wise.' Roddy DoyleA brilliantly funny and sharply observant novel from one of the most acclaimed American writers of her generation. This novel follows the lives of two 11-year-olds intent on escaping childhood. As the strength of their friendship is tested repeatedly, they begin to take their first, exhilarating steps towards adulthood.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER - From "one of the most acute and lasting writers of her generation" (The New York Times) comes a piercing novel of race, class, love, and war in America. Twenty-year-old Tassie Keltjin, the daughter of a gentleman farmer, has come to a university town as a student. When she takes a job as a part-time nanny for a mysterious and glamorous family, she finds herself drawn deeper into their world and forever changed. "An indelible portrait of a young woman coming of age in the Midwest in the year after 9/11.... Moore has written her most powerful book yet." --The New York Times

'The best American writer of her generation.' Nick Hornby 'How lucky we are that we have Lorrie Moore.' Lauren Groff 'Lorrie Moore is one of my absolute heroes.' Sinéad Gleeson 'Moore's prose is poetic, sharp and devastatingly funny.' Guardian Benna Carpenter makes anagrams out of words - but also out of life. Changing the facts, she invents new roles - night-club singer, aerobics teacher, poet; and new people - a daughter, a lover, a friend. In Anagrams, Lorrie Moore deftly weaves a complex plot with sensitivity and razor-sharp wit.

A startlingly perceptive series of portraits of the young, the hip, the lost, the unsettled and the unhinged of modern-day America, from the supremely talented Lorrie Moore.'Her stories, her stories, are perfect.' Slate'Irresistible.' New York Times Book Review'Such a delight.' Sunday Telegraph'One of America's most brilliant writers.' StylistLorrie Moore's dazzling collection of stories is remarkable for its range, emotional force and dark humour, and for the sheer beauty and power of its language. It unfolds a startlingly brilliant series of portraits of the young, the hip, the lost, the unsettled and the unhinged of modern-day America. In what may be her most stunning book yet, Lorrie Moore explores the personal and the universal, the idiosyncratic and the mundane with all of the wit, brio and verve that have made her one of the best storytellers of our time.

'America's first lady of darkness and mirth.' Guardian'I'd rather spend time with her than anyone else on Earth.' Nicole Flattery'Lorrie Moore is one of my very favourite writers.' Monica HeiseyComplicated, awkward, funny, cruel, heartbroken, mysterious; Self-Help forms an idiosyncratic guide to female existence which is just as relevant today as it was 30 years ago. These stories are modern America at its most real, with characters sharing thoughts and experiences they could have borrowed from our own lives. This is how to deal with divorce, adultery, cancer, how to talk to your mother or become a writer, the Lorrie Moore way.

In this brilliant collection of stories Lorrie Moore addresses herself to a contemporary emotional dilemma - the widening gulf between men and women, and the simultaneous yearning for and fear of closeness.

'You can sit back and have the time of your life reading A Gate at the Stairs.' Observer'One of the funniest writers alive' Dave Eggers'Hilarious and distressing, entertaining and wise' Roddy Doyle'Moore's a writer you don't quit.' Guardian***SHORTLISTED FOR THE ORANGE PRIZE FOR FICTION***A startlingly funny, inventive novel from one of America's most brilliant writers. With America quietly gearing up for war in the Middle East, twenty-year-old Tassie Keltjin, a 'half-Jewish' farmer's daughter from the plains of the Midwest, has come to university - escaping her provincial home to encounter the complex world of culture and politics. When she takes a job as a part-time nanny to a couple who seem at once mysterious and glamorous, Tassie is drawn into the life of their newly-adopted child and increasingly complicated household. As her past becomes increasingly alien to her - her parents seem older when she visits; her disillusioned brother ever more fixed on joining the military - Tassie finds herself becoming a stranger to herself. As the year unfolds, love leads her to new and formative experiences - but it is then that the past and the future burst forth in dramatic and shocking ways. Refracted through the eyes of this memorable narrator, A Gate at the Stairs is a lyrical, beguiling and wise novel of our times.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER - A NEW YORK TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR - From the bestselling author of A Gate at the Stairs A collection of twelve stories that's "one of our funniest, most telling anatomies of human love and vulnerability" (The New York Times Book Review). A volume by one of the most exciting writers at work today, the acclaimed author of Who Will Run the Frog Hospital? and Self-Help. Stories remarkable in their range, emotional force, and dark laughter, and in the sheer beauty and power of their language. From the opening story, "Willing"--about a second-rate movie actress in her thirties who has moved back to Chicago, where she makes a seedy motel room her home and becomes involved with a mechanic who has not the least idea of who she is as a human being--Birds of America unfolds a startlingly brilliant series of portraits of the unhinged, the lost, the unsettled of our America. In the story "Which Is More Than I Can Say About Some People" ("There is nothing as complex in the world--no flower or stone--as a single hello from a human being"), a woman newly separated from her husband is on a long-planned trip through Ireland with her mother. When they set out on an expedition to kiss the Blarney Stone, the image of wisdom and success that her mother has always put forth slips away to reveal the panicky woman she really is. In "Charades," a family game at Christmas is transformed into a hilarious and insightful (and fundamentally upsetting) revelation of crumbling family ties. In "Community Life,"a shy, almost reclusive, librarian, Transylvania-born and Vermont-bred, moves in with her boyfriend, the local anarchist in a small university town, and all hell breaks loose. And in "Four Calling Birds, Three French Hens," a woman who goes through the stages of grief as she mourns the death of her cat (Anger, Denial, Bargaining, H agen Dazs, Rage) is seen by her friends as really mourning other issues: the impending death of her parents, the son she never had, Bosnia.

'One of the funniest writers alive.' Dave Eggers'Her stories, her stories, are perfect.' Slate'Such a delight.' Sunday Telegraph'Poetic, sharp and devastatingly funny.' GuardianA wonderful collection from one of the most acclaimed and influential writers of her generation. Since the publication of Self-Help, her first collection of stories, Lorrie Moore has been hailed as one of the greatest and most influential voices in American fiction. Her ferociously funny, soulful stories tell of the gulf between men and women, the loneliness of the broken-hearted and the yearned-for, impossible intimacies we crave. Gathered here for the first time in a beautiful hardback edition is the complete stories along with three new and previously unpublished in book form: Paper Losses, The Juniper Tree, Debarking.

Disillusioned and loveless, a chain-smoking art history professor, who spends her spare time singing in nightclubs and tending to her young daughter, finds herself pursued by an erratic, would-be librettist. Reprint. 10,000 first printing.

An anthology of ten short stories focuses on women who are on the brink of loneliness--their mothers are dying, their husbands and lovers are leaving them--and who face their disappointments with anxiety laced with ironic humor. Reprint. 10,000 first printing.

Since its inception in 1915, the Best American series has become the premier annual showcase for the country's finest short fiction and nonfiction. For each volume, a series editor reads pieces from hundreds of periodicals, then selects between fifty and a hundred outstanding works. That selection is pared down to twenty or so very best pieces by a guest editor who is widely recognized as a leading writer in his or her field. This unique system has helped make the Best American series the most respected -- and most popular -- of its kind. Lorrie Moore brings her keen eye for wit and surprise to the volume, and The Best American Short Stories 2004 is an eclectic and enthralling gathering of well-known voices and talented up-and-comers. Here are stories that probe the biggest issues: ambition, gender, romance, war. Here are funny and touching and striking tales of a Spokane Indian, the estranged wife of an Iranian immigrant, an American tutor in Bombay. In her introduction Lorrie Moore writes, "The stories collected here impressed me with their depth of knowledge and feeling of character, setting, and situation . . . They spoke with amused intelligence, compassion, and dispassion."

NATIONAL BESTSELLER - In this moving, poignant novel by the bestselling author of Birds of America--and a master of American fiction--we share a grown woman's bittersweet nostalgia for the wildness of her youth. "An enchanting novel." --The New York Times The summer Berie was fifteen, she and her best friend Sils had jobs at Storyland in upstate New York where Berie sold tickets to see the beautiful Sils portray Cinderella in a strapless evening gown. They spent their breaks smoking, joking, and gossiping. After work they followed their own reckless rules, teasing the fun out of small town life, sleeping in the family station wagon, and drinking borrowed liquor from old mayonnaise jars. But no matter how wild, they always managed to escape any real danger--until the adoring Berie sees that Sils really does need her help--and then everything changes.

A collection of short fiction explores the ever widening gulf between men and women and the paradoxical fear of and yearning for intimacy in characters whose lives are marked by disillusionment, misunderstandings, boredom, and lack of direction. Reprint. 10,000 first printing.