Things You Should Know | Granta

  • Published: 13/09/2012
  • ISBN: 9781847087911
  • Granta Books
  • 224 pages

Things You Should Know

A.M. Homes

Things You Should Know is a collection of dazzling stories by one of the most talented and daring young American writers, whose distinctive narratives demonstrate how extraordinary the ordinary can be. A woman pursues an unconventional strategy for getting pregnant; a former First Lady shows despair and courage in dealing with her husband’s Alzheimer’s; a teacher’s list of ‘things you already should know but maybe are a little dumb, so you don’t’ becomes an obsession for someone who wasn’t at school the day it was given out; and adult tragedy intrudes into a childhood friendship. The stories are full of magic and strangeness and humour, but also demonstrate an uncanny emotional accuracy and compassion.

This prose has teeth ... you cannot shake a Homes story off your mind, you cannot rid yourself of the creeping unease it brings to your bedside table

Zadie Smith

An extraordinary collection ... these are stories you should read

Sunday Times

The stand-out, indeed knock-out, story here forces you to admire Homes's cleverness, makes you laugh out loud, then finally breaks your heart. That's why she has and deserves her A-list status

Independent

The Author

A. M. Homes is the author of the novels,This Book Will Save Your Life, Music for Torching, The End of Alice, In a Country of Mothers and Jack, and three collections of short stories, Days of Awe, Things You Should Know and The Safety of Objects and the highly acclaimed memoir, The Mistress’s Daughter, as well as the travel memoir, Los Angeles: People, Places and the Castle on the Hill. She is a contributing editor to Vanity Fair and writes frequently on arts and culture for numerous magazines and newspapers. She lives in New York City.

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