About the Book
From the acclaimed, New York Times bestselling award-winning author of Serena and The Cove, thirty of his finest short stories, collected in one volume.
No one captures the complexities of Appalachia--a rugged, brutal landscape of exquisite beauty--as evocatively and indelibly as author and poet Ron Rash. Winner of the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award, two O Henry prizes, and a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award, Rash brilliantly illuminates the tensions between the traditional and the modern, the old and new south, tenderness and violence, man and nature. Though the focus is regional, the themes of Rash's work are universal, striking an emotional chord that resonates deep within each of our lives.
Something Rich and Strange showcases this revered master's artistry and craftsmanship in thirty stories culled from his previously published collections Nothing Gold Can Stay, Burning Bright, Chemistry, and The Night New Jesus Fell to Earth. Each work of short fiction demonstrates Rash's dazzling ability to evoke the heart and soul of this land and its people--men and women inexorably tethered to the geography that defines and shapes them. Filled with suspense and myth, hope and heartbreak, told in language that flows like "shimmering, liquid poetry" (Atlanta Journal Constitution), Something Rich and Strange is an iconic work from an American literary virtuoso.
About the Author :
Ron Rash is the author of the 2009 PEN/Faulkner finalist and New York Times bestseller Serena and Above the Waterfall, in addition to four prizewinning novels, including The Cove, One Foot in Eden, Saints at the River, and The World Made Straight; four collections of poems; and six collections of stories, among them Burning Bright, which won the 2010 Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award, and Chemistry and Other Stories, which was a finalist for the 2007 PEN/Faulkner Award. Twice the recipient of the O. Henry Prize, he teaches at Western Carolina University.
Christian Baskous is an AudioFile Earphones Award-winning narrator. His theatrical credits include numerous roles in the New York Shakespeare Festival, Circle in the Square, the Kennedy Center, and Theater for the New City, as well as other regional theaters. His film and television work includes appearances in Glory, Brighton Beach Memoirs, Law & Order, Swan's Crossing, and Swift Justice.
Review :
"Something Rich and Strange is a bonanza for short-story fans, and another great introduction to Rash for those who haven't read the originals yet."
-- "Atlanta Journal-Constitution"
"Mr. Rash is one of the great American authors at work today, and this short-story anthology confirms that stature. His prose rings clear and true...His awe-inspiring stories are startlingly attuned to nature, human and otherwise, in all its power both to create and destroy."
-- "New York Times"
"Narrator Christian Baskous delivers this collection of stories by award-winning author Ron Rash with a soft Southern accent, deftly matching the tone and substance of the material. Baskous evokes empathy and horror in these tales of hard-hit Appalachian people dealing with poverty, sorrow, addiction, and more. He allows a weary, threadbare tone to seep into his voice, evoking the sandpaper quality of life lived on the edge. Baskous raises the emotional level of the stories, which are already poetic in nature. A match made in literary heaven, Rash and Baskous capture bleak moments that make listeners feel the pain and joy of life. Winner of the AudioFile Earphones Award."
-- "AudioFile"
"Rash's stories tell in crisp, gripping prose the emotional travails of life on the Appalachian outback...Powerful and beautifully told."
-- "Associated Press"
"Ron Rash's stories portray the Appalachian landscape in all its brutal, exquisite complexity...It is not an easy feat for a writer to portray a region so fully that enduring truths are found in local circumstance...[Rash] beautifully illustrates the appeal and vexation of the South."
-- "New York Times Book Review"
"The prose in every story is sensual and expressive. [Rash] swings easily between humor and pathos, the mundane and the momentous."
-- "Chicago Tribune"
"These stories describe a hardscrabble landscape streaked with violence that, in Rash's telling, is graphic but never gratuitous...These superbly suspenseful stories evoke a world of hurt, but what makes them so deeply satisfying is that they enlarge our capacity for empathy."
-- "Kirkus Reviews (starred review)"
"This anthology of Rash's earthy, often eerie short stories is like a forest you can get lost in for hours, [with] small but affecting tales of poverty, addiction, pride, love, and despair threaded with life-altering acts of violence and a firm sense of humanity...Grade: A-."
-- "Entertainment Weekly"
