{"title":"Elizabeth McCracken","description":"","products":[{"product_id":"the-souvenir-museum-stories-paperback","title":"The Souvenir Museum: Stories - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eLONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD AND THE STORY PRIZE\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAward-winning author Elizabeth McCracken is an undisputed virtuoso of the short story, and this new collection features her most vibrant and heartrending work to date\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn these stories, the mysterious bonds of family are tested, transformed, fractured, and fortified. A recent widower and his adult son ferry to a craggy Scottish island in search of puffins. An actress who plays a children's game-show villainess ushers in the New Year with her deadbeat half brother. A mother, pining for her children, feasts on loaves of challah to fill the void. A new couple navigates a tightrope walk toward love. And on a trip to a Texas water park with their son, two fathers each confront a personal fear. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWith sentences that crackle and spark and showcase her trademark wit, McCracken traces how our closely held desires--for intimacy, atonement, comfort--bloom and wither against the indifferent passing of time. Her characters embark on journeys that leave them indelibly changed--and so do her readers. \u003cem\u003eThe Souvenir Museum \u003c\/em\u003eshowcases the talents of one of our finest contemporary writers as she tenderly takes the pulse of our collective and individual lives.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50101562278111,"sku":"9780062971258","price":19.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0813\/8958\/4607\/files\/RmJQblZjOVVNdHE1ejBndHppZ095UT09.webp?v=1781071729"},{"product_id":"the-hero-of-this-book-paperback","title":"The Hero of This Book - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eNamed a Top Ten Best Book of the Year by \u003cem\u003eTime \u003c\/em\u003eand \u003cem\u003ePeople\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eNamed a Best Book of the Year by: \u003cem\u003eWashington Post * Kirkus Reviews \u003c\/em\u003e* \u003cem\u003eNew Yorker \u003c\/em\u003e* Chicago Public Library * NPR * \u003cem\u003eOprah Daily \u003c\/em\u003e* \u003cem\u003ePhiladelphia Enquirer\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eA taut, groundbreaking, and highly acclaimed novel from bestselling and award-winning author Elizabeth McCracken, about a writer's relationship with her larger-than-life mother--and about the very nature of writing, memory, and art\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTen months after her mother's death, the narrator of \u003cem\u003eThe Hero of This Book\u003c\/em\u003e takes a trip to London. The city was a favorite of her mother's, and as the narrator wanders the streets, she finds herself reflecting on her mother's life and their relationship. Thoughts of the past meld with questions of the future: Back in New England, the family home is now up for sale, its considerable contents already winnowed.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe narrator, a writer, recalls all that made her complicated mother extraordinary--her brilliant wit, her generosity, her unbelievable obstinacy, her sheer will in seizing life despite physical difficulties--and finds herself wondering how her mother had endured. Even though she wants to respect her mother's nearly pathological sense of privacy, the woman must come to terms with whether making a chronicle of this remarkable life constitutes an act of love or betrayal.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Hero of This Book \u003c\/em\u003e is a searing examination of grief and renewal, and of a deeply felt relationship between a child and her parents. What begins as a question of filial devotion ultimately becomes a lesson in what it means to write. At once comic and heartbreaking, with prose that delights at every turn, this is a novel of such piercing love and tenderness that we are reminded that art is what remains when all else falls away.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50101598748895,"sku":"9780062971296","price":18.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0813\/8958\/4607\/files\/q-DxG7oS1s9780062971296.webp?v=1781071798"}],"url":"https:\/\/blackandbarhe.com\/collections\/elizabeth-mccracken.oembed","provider":"Black \u0026 Barhe Bookstore","version":"1.0","type":"link"}