 | |
| Author | Debra Dean |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Genre | Fiction |
| Published | 2008 ( HarperCollins) |
| Publication place | USA |
| Media type | Print (Hardback) |
| Pages | 224 |
| ISBN | 9780060825324 |
| OCLC | 924436770 |
Confessions of a Falling Woman and Other Stories is a 2008 short story collection by Debra Dean. It is a 2009 Paterson Fiction Prize winner, [1] and was on the longlist of the 2008 Florida Book Awards. [2]
A Guardian review of Confessions of a Falling Woman wrote "While Dean alternates between male and female narrators, there is an uncomfortable sameness." but concluded "...in these controlled, purposeful, slightly mocking stories, Dean vividly illuminates the present too." [3] The Financial Times wrote "She (Dean) knows the frailties and egocentricities of her thespian subjects well - and writes about them with wry eloquence." [4]
Confessions of a Falling Woman has also been reviewed by Publishers Weekly , [5] Kirkus Reviews , [6] Library Journal , [7] and Booklist . [7]
Arch Colson Chipp Whitehead is an American novelist. He is the author of nine novels, including his 1999 debut The Intuitionist; The Underground Railroad (2016), for which he won the 2016 National Book Award for Fiction and the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction; and The Nickel Boys, for which he won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction again in 2020, making him one of only four writers ever to win the prize twice. He has also published two books of nonfiction. In 2002, he received a MacArthur Fellowship.
Alice McDermott is an American writer and university professor. She is the author of nine novels and a collection of essays. For her 1998 novel Charming Billy she won an American Book Award and the U.S. National Book Award for Fiction and was a finalist for the International Dublin Literary Award and the Orange Prize. That Night, At Weddings and Wakes, and After This were finalists for the Pulitzer Prize. Her most recent novel, Absolution was awarded the Mark Twain American Voice in Literature Award.
Dame Penelope Margaret Lively is a British writer of fiction for both children and adults. Lively has won both the Booker Prize and the Carnegie Medal for British children's books.
Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni is an Indian-born American author, poet, and the Betty and Gene McDavid Professor of Writing at the University of Houston Creative Writing Program. Her short story collection, Arranged Marriage, won an American Book Award in 1996. Two of her novels, as well as a short story were adapted into films.
The Madonnas of Leningrad, Debra Dean's first novel, tells the story of Marina, a docent at the State Hermitage Museum during the 900-day Siege of Leningrad. Marina's clear and detailed recollections of the Hermitage collection and the war are interspersed with her current dementia-impaired life in Seattle, Washington as she prepares to attend a granddaughter's wedding. The novel uses the vivid memories of the past to contrast with the struggles of an Alzheimer's victim in dealing with everyday life.
Lauren Groff is an American novelist and short story writer. She has written five novels and two short story collections, including Fates and Furies (2015), Florida (2018), Matrix (2022), and The Vaster Wilds (2023).
Ashley Little is a Canadian author of both adult and young adult literature.
Chigozie Obioma is a Nigerian writer who wrote the novels The Fishermen (2015) and An Orchestra of Minorities (2019), both of which were shortlisted for the Booker Prize in their respective years of publication. His work has been translated into more than 30 languages. His third novel, The Road to the Country, was published in 2024, and was described by The Guardian as having "given a voice" to the victims of the Nigerian civil war.
A Song for Ella Grey is a 2014 young adult novel, written by David Almond and illustrated by Karen Radford. It is based on the legend, Orpheus and Eurydice.
Ancestor Stones (2006) is a novel by British writer Aminatta Forna about the experiences of four women in a polygamous family in West Africa.
The Memory of Love is a 2010 novel by Aminatta Forna about the experiences of three men in Sierra Leone. In 2022, it was included on the "Big Jubilee Read" list of 70 books by Commonwealth authors, selected to celebrate the Platinum Jubilee of Elizabeth II.
Meredith Russo is an American young adult author from Chattanooga, Tennessee.
The Portable Veblen is a 2016 novel by Elizabeth McKenzie. It is about a young woman, Veblen, and her relationships with her fiancé Paul, their families, and squirrels.
Fonda Lee is a Canadian-American author of speculative fiction. She is best known for writing The Green Bone Saga, the first of which, Jade City, won the 2018 World Fantasy Award and was named one of the 100 Best Fantasy Books of All Time by Time magazine. The Green Bone Saga was also included on NPR's list, "50 Favorite Sci-Fi and Fantasy Books of the Past Decade".
Crawling at Night is a 2001 novel by Nani Power. It follows the lives, over two nights, of Ito, a sushi chef, and Marianne, a waitress in downtown Manhattan.
Patricia Engel is a Colombian-American writer, professor of creative writing at the University of Miami, and author of five books, including Vida, which was a PEN/Hemingway Fiction Award Finalist and winner of the Premio Biblioteca de Narrativa Colombiana, Colombia's national prize in literature. She was the first woman, and Vida the first book in translation, to receive the prize.
The Nickel Boys is a 2019 novel by American novelist Colson Whitehead. It is based on the historic Dozier School, a reform school in Florida that operated for 111 years and was revealed as highly abusive. A university investigation found numerous unmarked graves for unrecorded deaths and a history into the late 20th century of emotional and physical abuse of students.
Terra Nullius is a 2017 speculative fiction novel by Claire G. Coleman. It draws from Australia's colonial history, describing a society split into "Natives" and "Settlers."
Hernan Diaz is an Argentine-American writer. His 2023 novel, Trust, was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. His 2017 novel In the Distance was a finalist for the same Pulitzer Prize, as well as the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. He also received a Whiting Award.
The Rabbit Hutch is a 2022 debut novel by American novelist Tess Gunty and winner of the 2022 National Book Award for Fiction. Gunty also won the inaugural Waterstones Debut Fiction Prize and the Barnes & Noble Discover Award for the novel.
Readers will certainly forget themselves in these sparkling stories, pausing over small, strange moments that change entire lives.
Dean has a fine appreciation for the way chance can save or doom careers and marriages.