There may be no one better than T. C. Boyle at engaging, shocking, and ultimately gratifying readers while at the same time testing his charactersâ emotional and physical endurance.
The fourteen stories in this rich new collection display T. C. Boyleâs astonishing range and imaginative muscle. Nature is the dominant player in many of these stories, whether in the form of a catastrophic mudslide that allows a cynic to reclaim his humanity or in Boyleâs powerfully original retelling of the story of Victor, the feral boy who was captured running naked through the forests of Napoleonic Franceâa moving and magical investigation of what it means to be human. Other tales range from the drama of a man who spins Homeric lies in order to stop going to work, to that of a young woman who must babysit for a $250,000 cloned Afghan, to the sad comedy of a child born to Mexican street vendors who is unable to feel pain. Brilliant, incisive, and always engaging, Boyleâs short stories showcase the mischievous humor and socially conscious sensibility that have made him one of the most acclaimed writers of our time.
T.C. Boyle is an American novelist and short-story writer. Since the mid-1970s, he has published eighteen novels and twelve collections of short stories. He won the PEN/Faulkner Award in 1988 for his third novel, Worldâs End, and the Prix MÊdicis Êtranger (France) in 1995 for The Tortilla Curtain. His novel Drop City was a finalist for the 2003 National Book Award. Most recently, he has been the recipient of the Mark Twain American Voice in Literature Award, the Henry David Thoreau Prize, and the Jonathan Swift Prize for satire. He is a Distinguished Professor of English Emeritus at the University of Southern California and lives in Santa Barbara.