Guess Again - by Bernard Cooper (Paperback)

About the Book

This masterful collection of poignant and affecting short stories from the O. Henry Prize and PEN/Hemingway Award-winning author resonates with themes that transcend modern American life, such as family, sexuality, loss, love, and the specter of AIDS.

Book Synopsis

Guess Again is a rich and eclectic collection of exquisitely crafted short stories. Written with unsparing honesty, these stories vividly illustrate love's complexities, the intricacies of family relationships, struggles with sexual identity, and the specter of AIDS.

Whether chronicling a dying man's acts of vandalism, a divorcée under house arrest, a Mormon couple's potluck dinner for their few homosexual acquaintances, or a young Los Angeles boy's sexual awakening, the stories in Guess Again are full of wit, subtlety, and emotional generosity.

Review Quotes

"Funny but not jokey, moral but not preachy, Bernard Cooper's stories reflect a great sense of humor and a bottomless reserve of humanity." -- David Sadaris

"Funny, compassionate, wistful . . . Cooper has a voice that is fluid and engaging." -- Charles Wilson, The New York Times Book Review

"Gentle humor and wonder at the variety of directions life can go lurk in the crevices and secret corners of these stories." -- Susan Salter Reynolds, Los Angeles Times

"Wonderful . . . [Cooper's] delicate use of humor, sympathy, and humanity makes Guess Again a wonderful addition to the short-story canon." -- Scott W. Helman, The Boston Globe

About the Author

Bernard Cooper has won numerous awards and prizes, among them the PEN/Ernest Hemingway Award, an O. Henry Prize, and literature fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and The National Endowment of the Arts.

He has published two memoirs, Maps to Anywhere and Truth Serum, as well as a novel, A Year of Rhymes, and a collection of short stories, Guess Again. His work has appeared in Harper's Magazine, Gentleman's Quarterly, and The Paris Review and in several volumes of The Best American Essays. He lives in Los Angeles and is the art critic for Los Angeles Magazine.