For a Little While

The definitive collection of a great American writer's stories. Published in the UK for the first time Rick Bass is unsurpassed in his ability to perceive and portray the enduring truths of the human heart. Collected here for the first time is the definitive volume of his stories, selected from thirty years of work, which will confirm his reputation as one of the most astonishing American writers today. To read his fiction is to feel more alive, and to be captivated by his expression of the vastness of human experience and the awesome beauty of the natural world. The men and women in these stories live with intensity and tenderness, struggling against their fate at the moment of recognition. Rick Bass's sentences resonate with lush and exquisite language and his writing can both shock and astonish. The stories collected in For a Little While - brimming with magic and wonder, filled with hard-won empathy, marbled throughout with astonishing imagery - have the power both to devastate and uplift. Rick Bass, a National Book Critics Circle Award finalist for his memoir Why I Came West, was born and raised in Texas, worked as a petroleum geologist in Mississippi, and has lived in Montana's Yaak Valley for almost thirty years. His short fiction, which has appeared on the New Yorker, The Atlantic, Esquire, GQ and the Paris Review, as well as numerous times in The Best American Short Stories, has earned him multiple O. Henry Awards and Pushcart Prizes in addition to NEA and Guggenheim fellowships. He is the writer in residence at Montana State University.

About the Author :
Rick Bass, a National Book Critics Circle Award finalist for his memoir Why I Came West, was born and raised in Texas, worked as a petroleum geologist in Mississippi, and has lived in Montana's Yaak Valley for almost thirty years. His short fiction, which has appeared on The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Esquire, GQ and The Paris Review, as well as numerous times in The Best American Short Stories, has earned him multiple O. Henry Awards and Pushcart Prizes in addition to NEA and Guggenheim fellowships. He is the writer in residence at Montana State University.

Review :
Bass is a modern-day Henry Thoreau... It doesn't take you long to discover their appeal... a rallying cry against our modern, urban existence which stops us from experiencing life so intensely... a celebration of being wild... What better books to read on a frustrating commute than this collection of small stories about big landscapes Rick Bass's haunting tales of the Montana wilderness glitter like ice sculptures - dazzling and unforgettable... Praise to Pushkin Press for introducing us to an astonishing literary voice Bass is, hands down, a master of the short form, creating in a few ­pages a natural world of mythic proportions. The sheer majesty of Bass's storytelling... remarkable descriptions of the wild and savage landscapes A rich collection of stories by a major American writer These stories are adventurous, wise and unexpectedly beautiful Nothing short of remarkable . . . Extraordinary, transcendent Phenomenal These are arresting, unforgettable stories that will shake you to the core I found the often unusual, magical nature of the events contained within each story thrilling... The idea of almost magic, almost reality, almost tangible ideas, characters and scenarios is what I will take away from For a Little While Each story in For a Little While is a complete hijacking of the reader's senses, accomplished with a raw and splendid subtlety He is revered as a serious writer with a good deal in common, stylistically and thematically, with Annie Proulx, who shares his rugged sensibility and interest in processes... He is informed and very aware of both the insignificance of man in the natural world, and of the damage he wreaks What a gift this bountiful book is. His stories are suffused with a quality of tenderness for all of whom he writes and the beautiful world they inhabit I am so grateful to Rick Bass for writing these stories, I cannot tell you 'His narration is pitch-perfect, and his writing so full of empathy for people and places that each story is a new revelation.'