Things You Should Know: A Collection of Stories

A New York Times Notable Book "Haunting, disturbing, often radiantly intense, these protean stories change shape as if they are made of fire. They are on the side of things lost, they are pushed by the emergency of our lives-yet in the dazzle of their language there is a wonderful stillness, and consolation." --Andrea Barrett In this stunningly original collection, A. M. Homes writes with terrifying compassion about the things that matter most. Homes's distinctive narrative illuminates our dreams and desires, our memories and losses, and demonstrates how extraordinary the ordinary can be. With uncanny emotional accuracy, wit, and empathy, Homes takes us places we recognize but would rather not go alone.

About the Author :
A.M. Homes is the author of the novels The End of Alice, In a Country of Mothers, and Jack, as well as the short-story collection The Safety of Objects and the artist's book Appendix A. Her fiction has been translated into eight languages, and she is the recipient of numerous awards, including a Guggenheim Fellowship and a National endowment for the Arts Fellowship. Her fiction and nonfiction appear in magazines such as The New Yorker and Artforum, among others, and she is a contributing editor at Vanity Fair, Mirabella, Bomb, Blind Spot, and Story. She teaches in the writing programs at Columbia University and The New School and lives in New York City.

Review :
"Haunting, disturbing, often radiantly intense, these protean stories change shape as if they are made of fire. They are on the side of things lost, they are pushed by the emergency of our lives--yet in the dazzle of their language there is a wonderful stillness, and consolation." -- Andrea Barrett "A.M. Homes never plays it safe and it begins to look as if she can do almost anything." -- Michael Cunningham "Haunting, disturbing, often radiantly intense, these protean stories change shape as if they are made of fire." -- Andrea Barrett "A. M. Homes is certainly among the most important young writers working now." -- Robert Stone "A savagely funny read, both unnerving and irresistible." -- Richard Price "Here Homes approaches the art of the great absurdists. Strangeness becomes a revealing back entrance into the human condition of our day." -- New York Times Book Review "A lavishly imagintive story collection... with high drama and killer comic dialogue....Twelve years after the release of THE SAFETY OF OBJECTS, Homes' return to short fiction is a gift." -- Entertainment Weekly "Perversely hilarious yet also poignant, this collection finds Homes at her creepiest, but most chilling is how much one begins to identify with her characters' sense of alienation." -- Vogue "In several of the stories Homes creates characters whose conflicts are believable and affecting, whose progress toward limited resolution engages our attention, whose emotions intensify as the story progresses, and who do not live in airless self-absorption but have some connection to the world.... These tales are realistic and psychologically astute." -- Boston Globe