One More Thing: Stories and Other Stories

Description

A boy wins $100,000 in a box of Frosted Flakes - only to discover that claiming the winnings may unravel his family. An acclaimed ambulance driver seeks the courage to follow his heart and throw it all away to be a singer-songwriter. A school principal unveils a bold plan to permanently abolish arithmetic. A new arrival in heaven, overwhelmed by infinite options, procrastinates over his long-ago promise to visit his grandmother. We meet a vengeance-minded hare. We learn why wearing a red T-shirt is the key to finding love; how February got its name; and why the stock market is sometimes just . . . down. Finding inspiration in questions from the nature of perfection to the icing on carrot cake, from the deeply familiar to the intoxicatingly imaginative, ONE MORE THING finds its heart in the most human of phenomena: love, fear, family, ambition, and the inner stirring for the one elusive element that might make a person complete. The stories in this collection are like nothing else, but they have one thing in common: they share the playful humour, deep heart, inquisitive mind, and altogether electrifying spirit of a writer with a fierce devotion to the entertainment of the reader.

B. J. Novak is a writer and actor best known for his work on NBC's Emmy Award winning comedy series The Office as an actor, writer, director and executive producer. He is also recognized for his stand-up comedy performances and his roles in motion pictures such as Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds and Disney's upcoming Saving Mr Banks. He is a graduate of Harvard University with a degree in English and Spanish literature.

B.J. blew me away. He just keeps kicking short fiction in the rear, making it run ahead clutching its ass, and then he runs up and kicks it some more, and the result is one of the most aggressively, insanely awesome debuts in a while - Gary Shteyngart, author of Super Sad True Love Story Everyone knew that B.J. Novak was smart and sexy, but funny, too!? Wow, screw that guy. I haven't laughed at words this hard since I read - Joshua Ferris author of The Unnamed and Then We Came to the End A funny writer with a great ear, but also a genuine storyteller with an observant eye and finely tuned emotional radar - New York Times - Michiko Kakutani A teller of funny, skew-whiff tales . . . Novak has, like, totally been compared to David Sedaris and Woody Allen, which is insane but also kinda true - New Statesman Remarkably good. There's a wildly eclectic range on display, from personal meditations to flights of absurdist whimsy - Guardian