The Edge of Marriage - (Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction) by Hester Kaplan (Paperback)

About the Book

Kaplan, winner of the Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction, writes potent short stories in which she puts seemingly solid marriages to the test, pushing them to their breaking point by force of sorrow and tragedy. Disease and accidents often drive couples to the brink of separation and her characters find themselves in emotional free fall.

Book Synopsis

The characters in this extraordinary debut collection fi nd themselves caught between commitment and responsibility. In one story, a wife struggles to care for her adulterous husband after a car accident. In another, a husband finds himself drawn to his wife's former lover. In language that is eloquent and precise, these stories speak to the mysteries of friendship and marriage. This startling and powerful collection is illuminated by keen insight and hope.

Review Quotes

The Edge of Marriage introduces a remarkable new writer.

--Annie Dillard

Graceful, accomplished prose.

--New York Times Book Review

Like the tightly crafted stories of Raymond Carver and pre-postmodern Flannery O'Connor . . . Kaplan's disquieting stories are a confluence of emotive narration, precisely placed dialogue, and shadowed imagery.

--Austin Chronicle

Reading these stories is like watching a window shatter in silence--we become mesmerized by the stark beauty of disintegration.

--New Yorker

Tough-minded reports from the marital frontlines . . . A precisely observant collection, unsparing, original, and resonant.

--Kirkus Reviews

About the Author

HESTER KAPLAN is the author of the novels The Tell and Kinship Theory and of the short story collections Unravished and The Edge of Marriage. Her short fiction and nonfiction has been widely published and anthologized, including in the Best American Short Stories series. She is a recipient of an NEA fellowship, several state arts council grants, the McGinnis-Ritchie Award for Nonfiction, and the Salamander Fiction Prize, among others awards. She is cofounder of Goat Hill Writers and is on the faculty of Lesley University's MFA Program in Creative Writing. She lives in Rhode Island.