A Guide to Being Born: Stories - Softcover

Ausubel, Ramona

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1594632685 ISBN 13: 9781594632686

Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group, 2014

Synopsis

Reminiscent of Aimee Bender and Karen Russell--an enthralling new collection that uses the world of the imagination to explore the heart of the human condition. Major new literary talent Ramona Ausubel combines the otherworldly wisdom of her much-loved debut novel, "No One Is Here Except All of Us," with the precision of the short-story form. "A Guide toBeing Born "is organized around the stages of life--love, conception, gestation, birth--and the transformations that happen as people experience deeply altering life events, falling in love, becoming parents, looking toward the end of life. In each of these eleven stories Ausubel's stunning imagination and humor are moving, entertaining, and provocative, leading readers to see the familiar world in a new way. In "Atria" a pregnant teenager believes she will give birth to any number of strange animals rather than a human baby; in "Catch and Release" a girl discovers the ghost of a Civil War hero living in the woods behind her house; and in "Tributaries" people grow a new arm each time they fall in love. Funny, surprising, and delightfully strange--all the stories have a strong emotional core; Ausubel's primary concern is always love, in all its manifestations.

About this title

Product Description:

Major new literary talent Ramona Ausubel combines the otherworldly wisdom of her much-loved debut novel, No One Is Here Except All of Us, with the precision of the short-story form. A Guide to Being Born is organised around the stages of life love, conception, gestation, birth and the transformations that happen as people experience deeply altering life events, falling in love, becoming parents, looking toward the end of life. In each of these eleven stories Ausubel's stunning imagination and humor are moving, entertaining, and provocative, leading readers to see the familiar world in a new way.

In Atria a pregnant teenager believes she will give birth to any number of strange animals rather than a human baby; in Catch and Release a girl discovers the ghost of a Civil War hero living in the woods behind her house; and in Tributaries people grow a new arm each time they fall in love. Funny, surprising, and delightfully strange all the stories have a strong emotional core; Ausubel s primary concern is always love, in all its manifestations.

Review:

"Each story in this collection finds a way to record the tensions between the corporeal and the invisible, the forces that animate us but ultimately can't be dissected, our anti-anatomies. The dismay of coming to the final page is easily combated by following the example of Ausubel's characters and beginning all over again."--The New York Times Book Review

"Aggressively imaginative."--The New York Times

"Lyrical stories arranged around themes of birth, gestation, conception and love. . . . Ausubel has a gift of language so rich that even the most mundane events are invested with poetry, and many of her characters are in need of all the poetry they can muster."--Kirkus

"Ausubel is a master stylist of vibrant, concise prose, and these stories, with love most often at their cores, can be appreciated for that alone."--Booklist

"These stories reminded me of branches full of cherry blossoms: fresh, delicate, beautiful, expressive, otherworldly. I eagerly read from one story to the next."--Aimee Bender

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 1594632685
• ISBN 13: 9781594632686
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 208