{"product_id":"9780374177232","title":"The Isle of Youth : Stories","description":"\u003cstrong\u003eThe Isle of Youth\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor(s): Laura van den Berg\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eLaura van den Berg's gorgeous new book, \u003ci\u003eThe Isle of Youth\u003c\/i\u003e, explores the lives of women mired in secrecy and deception. From a newlywed caught in an inscrutable marriage, to private eyes working a baffling case in South Florida, to a teenager who assists her magician mother and steals from the audience, the characters in these bewitching stories are at once vulnerable and dangerous, bighearted and ruthless, and they will do what it takes to survive. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eEach tale is spun with elegant urgency, and the reader grows attached to the marginalized young women in these stories—women grappling with the choices they've made and searching for the clues to unlock their inner worlds. This is the work of a fearless writer whose stories feel both magical and mystical, earning her the title of \"sorceress\" from her readers. Be prepared to fall under her spell. \u003cbr\u003eAn NPR Best Book of 2013\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eReview(s):\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Wonder and mystery are recurring motifs. The women here are one step ahead of disaster or one step behind it, and either way they are eager to discover what's next . . . Van den Berg, in this wonderful collection, never lets us turn away.” —\u003ci\u003eNatalie Serber, The New York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Confident, gripping stories . . . Ms. van den Berg spins complex plots around a sense of emotional emptiness. Her stories are bursting at the seams, while her characters are lonely to the core.” —\u003ci\u003eJohn Williams, The New York Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“The stories in Laura van den Berg's dreamy \u003ci\u003eThe Isle of Youth \u003c\/i\u003eare absolutely captivating.” —\u003ci\u003eVanity Fair\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“\u003ci\u003eThe Isle of Youth\u003c\/i\u003e, is a smart, fun, noir-y treasure map of where families hide their secrets and lost souls hide themselves. Van den Berg somehow packs a duffel bag of plot into carry-on-size stories. She also has the right kind of range: from brutal to moving to funny, South America to Paris to Antarctica, really great to freaking outstanding.” —\u003ci\u003eKathryn Schulz, New York Magazine\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Darting, shifting things . . . though her stories find footing in dark matter, the reader ends up feeling something akin to having been freed by the end of the reading . . . [a] tremendous collection.” —\u003ci\u003eWeston Cutter, Minneapolis Star Tribune\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“If you like Murakami's cool prose, that Raymond Chandler-esque aloofness in the face of strange events, have I got the book for you . . . [\u003ci\u003eThe Isle of Youth\u003c\/i\u003e]\u003ci\u003e is\u003c\/i\u003e a small book, but it feels much bigger. I could have kept reading for days.” —\u003ci\u003eRosecrans Baldwin, NPR's All Things Considered\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Curiosity--sprung from idleness, neglect, or betrayal--is a force to be reckoned with in these delicately layered narratives linked by themes of mystery and survival …Van den Berg gracefully captures such unseen moments of triumph and failure as lives are derailed--and discovered--in her stories.” —\u003ci\u003eELLE Magazine\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“If you like your female protagonists quirky, questing, and quixotic, you will adore this story collection and the author's ability to bore into her characters' innermost thoughts, piercing straight through to their red-hot centers.” —\u003ci\u003eO, The Oprah Magazine\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“van den Berg's sophomore collection of mysterious stories follows likeable ladies with dangerous behavior.” —\u003ci\u003eMarie Claire\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Amusing and absorbing…” —\u003ci\u003eGlamour\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“With her latest collection of seven stories, \u003ci\u003eThe Isle of Youth\u003c\/i\u003e, Laura van den Berg gives readers a great place to maroon themselves…even though much remains unresolved, van den Berg's stories are still revelatory.” —\u003ci\u003eThe Cleveland Plain Dealer\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“…takes wry pleasure in reversing expected gender roles…Ms. van den Berg is perceptive about the ways that her characters--many of them demoralized wives--feel trapped within their identities and grasp at unwise escapes.” —\u003ci\u003eSam Sacks, The Wall Street Journal\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“A master of the short story creates seven elaborate worlds with beautiful and haunting characters at a time when it feels like most short story collections are pretty thinly plotted.” —\u003ci\u003eEsquire\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“The small, genuine and insightful moments at the heart of each tale mark the progress of a distinguished young writer.” —\u003ci\u003eTime Out New York\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Van den Berg excels at complexity, ec­centricity, maximalism of plot . . . Her emphases on elaborate plot and inten­tional loose ends are a refreshing departure from the contemporary taste for tidy, mini­mal plot paired with maximal voices.” —\u003ci\u003eThe New Inquiry\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“You know how we're always going on about how this is a really good time for fans of short stories? Laura van den Berg is one of the best examples of why that is totally true, and this new collection on FSG should be all the proof you need. She is at the head of the pack when it comes to young writers that are more comfortable with the shorter form.” —\u003ci\u003eJason Diamond, Flavorwire\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“A sturdy short story collection works like a good album: strong piece by piece, but also on the whole. \"I Looked for You, I Called Your Name\" is as strong an opener as I've ever seen in a book of short stories, and it sets the tone and pace for the rest of Laura van den Berg's second work, \u003ci\u003eThe Isle of Youth\u003c\/i\u003e.” —\u003ci\u003eGrantland\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“If ever there was a writer going places, it's Laura van den Berg, who follows up her debut collection, \u003ci\u003eWhat the World Will Look Like When All the Water Leaves Us\u003c\/i\u003e, with the ambitious, modular \u003ci\u003eThe Isle of Youth\u003c\/i\u003e, whose seven stories are arranged along the themes of family secrets with noirish intrigue.” —\u003ci\u003ePublisher's Weekly (starred review)\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“A mesmerizing collection of stories about the secrets that keep us.” —\u003ci\u003eKirkus\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“In \u003ci\u003eThe Isle of Youth\u003c\/i\u003e, a group of young women narrators seek to understand the people in their lives as a means of understanding themselves. Magically, Laura van den Berg turns a group of lost souls into a beautiful and compelling read.” —\u003ci\u003eAnn Patchett, author of State of Wonder and Bel Canto\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Laura van den Berg is one of the most freakishly talented young writers at work today, and a master of the short story form. Hers are deliciously unnerving, moving, and monstrous tales.” —\u003ci\u003eKaren Russell, author of Vampires in the Lemon Grove and Swamplandia!\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“I've never met Laura, but it seems like we would come across a new story by her every month or so during our reading for \u003ci\u003eBest\u003c\/i\u003e \u003ci\u003eAmerican Nonrequired Reading\u003c\/i\u003e. They were uniformly excellent--emotionally complex, very raw--but always with a mixture of pathos and humour that made me think of Lorrie Moore.” —\u003ci\u003eDave Eggers, Huck magazine\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“\u003ci\u003eThe Isle of Youth \u003c\/i\u003eis simply astonishing. Each story is more surprising, more urgent, more savagely frank than the last. This is an awe-inspiring and necessary collection from one of the most sure-footed writers of our time.” —\u003ci\u003eClaire Vaye Watkins, author of Battleborn\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“This collection is rich, surprising, and a lot of fun. \u003ci\u003eThe Isle of Youth \u003c\/i\u003eplays with crime stories of a kind, noir tales of deceit and betrayal, but really each investigates the spaces, the distances, that keep human beings from ever truly knowing one another. Van den Berg is a ridiculously talented writer, and this wonderful book provides the proof.” —\u003ci\u003eVictor LaValle, author of The Devil in Silver\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWinner NPR Best Book of the Year (2013), Winner Rosenthal Family Foundation Award (2014), Long-listed Amazon.com Best Books of the Year (2013), Long-listed Oprah.com Best Books of the Year (2013), Long-listed Bookish Best Books of the Year (2013), Long-listed Flavorwire Best Books of the Year (2013)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eISBN:  9780374177232\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e ","brand":"FSG Originals","offers":[{"title":"Paperback \/ softback","offer_id":40596642595022,"sku":"9780374177232","price":16.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0600\/7029\/7806\/products\/getimage_1067fd00-de74-4f6a-9263-81eaef8ef867.jpg?v=1637863541","url":"https:\/\/pickwickbookshop.com\/products\/9780374177232","provider":"Pickwick Bookshop","version":"1.0","type":"link"}