Lucky Girls - (Art of the Story) by Nell Freudenberger (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Nell Freudenberger's brilliantly observed debut story collection

The debut collection of Nell Freudenberger, who first came to national attention with the 2001 New Yorker publication of the title story, Lucky Girls encompasses five novella length stories set in Southeast Asia and on the Indian subcontinent.

In "Lucky Girls," an American woman who has been involved in a five-year affair with a married Indian man feels bound, following his untimely death, to her memories of him and to her adopted country. And in "Letter from the Last Bastion," a teenage girl begins a correspondence with a middle aged male novelist, who, having built his reputation writing about his experiences as a soldier in Vietnam, confides in her the secret truth of those experiences, and the lie that has defined his life as a man.

From the Back Cover

The debut collection of Nell Freudenberger, who first came to national attention with the 2001 New Yorker publication of the title story, Lucky Girls encompasses five stories set in Southeast Asia and on the Indian subcontinent. They each bear the weight and substance of a short novella and are narrated by young women who find themselves, often as expatriates, face-to-face with the compelling circumstances of adult love. Living in unfamiliar places, according to new and often-frightening rules, these characters become vulnerable in unexpected ways and learn, as a result, to articulate the romantic attraction to landscapes and cultures that are strange to them.

In "Lucky Girls," an American woman who has been involved in a five-year affair with a married Indian man feels bound, following his untimely death, to her memories of him and to her adopted country. And in "Letter from the Last Bastion," a teenage girl begins a correspondence with a middle- aged male novelist, who, having built his reputation writing about his experiences as a soldier in Vietnam, confides in her the secret truth of those experiences, and the lie that has defined his life as a man.

Now in a new edition with a preface by the author, Lucky Girls marked the arrival of a writer of exceptional talents, one whose generosity of spirit, clarity of intellect and emotion, and skill in storytelling set her among our most gifted and exciting voices.

Review Quotes

At 22, Nell Freudenberger--arguably the summer's hottest young writer--turned down a job at Random House. Smart move. She went to Bangkok instead, teaching English to 15-year-olds, and then spent the following summers exploring India. Her exotic travels, and the inevitable loneliness a foreigner feels in a borrowed country, shape the five stories in her eagerly awaited debut collection. -- Entertainment Weekly

"Throughout the book...are moments of sharp humor and wise insight." -- Los Angeles Times

"Lucky Girls is a beautiful story that has a graceful simplicity." -- People

"Young writers as ambitious--and as good--as Nell Freudenberger give us reason for hope." -- New York Times Book Review

"Skillful and assured...Freudenberger's prose is smooth. -- Raleigh News & Observer

"[Freudenberger's] stories have the complex nuances of a mature writer." -- Speakeasy magazine

"In simple, elegant prose, she renders foreign landscapes with unsentimental precision." -- Vogue

"These tales measure the distance between parents and daughters and natives and arrivistes with uncommon grace and a dash of Lorrie Moore-like deadpan. But it's the final story -- a poignant collage of letter and novel in which a 17-year-old girl recounts the life and times of an author in his twilight -- that will leave you eagerly anticipating a Freudenberger novel." -- Elle

"Freudenberger is...a fantastic writer." -- Houston Press

"Extraordinary stories." -- The Journal News