A Model World

Description

In this compelling collection of short stories, bestselling author Michael Chabon explores adolescent desire, love, friendship and fatherhood, moving across this powerful emotional ground with subtlety and incisiveness. Written with wryness, whimsy and intellectual depth, this is a collection of eleven wonderful stories of growing up and growing wise. In 'S Angel' a group of wedding guests is hijacked by a fast-talking real estate agent, but not before the bride herself disappears. 'Smoke' takes us to a baseball catcher's funeral, where one of the mourners - a has-been pitcher - confronts the ruins of his career. In the hilarious title story, a graduate student plagiarizes a dissertation on the movement of clouds, only to find himself and his faculty advisor in a parlour game where each player must confess the worst thing he or she has ever done. The second part of the book 'The Lost World' is a series of stories about a young boy, Nathan Shapiro, who must face the wrenching emotions caused by his parents' bitter divorce. Serious, yet shot through with wit, humour and compassion, these are unforgettable stories from one of America's most celebrated writers.

Michael Chabon is the author of two collections of stories for adults, 'A Model World' and 'Werewolves in their Youth'; a children's book, 'Summerland'; the novels 'The Mysteries of Pittsburgh', 'Wonder Boys' (which has been made into a film) and 'The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay' (winner of the Pulitzer Prize); and the short story 'The Final Solution'. He co-wrote the screenplay for Spiderman 2. His short stories have appeared in The New Yorker, GQ, Esquire and Playboy. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife and their four children.

'Poignant, affecting, witty, wrenching, a terrific writer.' Washington Post 'Establishes Chabon as one of his generation's most eloquent voices.' New York Times Praise for 'The Yiddish Policemen's Union': 'His almost ecstatically smart and sassy new novel!Chabon is a spectacular writer!a language magician. He has you laughing out loud, applauding the fun he has with language and the way he takes the task of a writer and runs delighted rings around it.' Guardian 'Michael Chabon's brilliant new novel starts with a bang!It hums with humour. It buzzes with gags!the accumulated reading experience is one of admiration, close to awe, at the vigour of Chabon's imagination!a hilarious, antic whirl of a novel.' Sunday Times 'It makes film noir look like film blanc by comparison.' Arena Praise for 'The Wonder Boys': 'The natural exuberance and extravagance of Chabon's writing is matched by dazzling wit.' Sunday Telegraph '"Wonder Boys" is a superb creation, a raucously comic yet deeply lyrical work.' Sunday Times Praise for 'The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay': 'An adventure story that keeps you up until 4 am with the bedside lamp on, eager to learn if the Escapist, and Chabon himself, can free the enslaved and lead them home.' Observer 'Proof of the abiding power of complex, serious, engaged, but above all entertaining story-telling.' Times Literary Supplement 'A page-turning epic, sketching World War II as seen through the eyes of two comic book writers.' Time Out 'A novel of towering achievement.' New York Times 'Absolutely gosh-wow, super-colossal.' Washington Post