Steven Millhauser Book order

AN NPR AND NEW YORKER BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR • An exquisite new collection from a Pulitzer Prize–winning master of the short story, the culmination of a five-decade career: work that takes us beneath the placid surface of suburban life into the elusive strangeness of the everyday Here are eighteen stories of astonishing range and precision. A housewife drinks alone in her Connecticut living room. A guillotine glimmers above a sleepy town green. A pre-recorded customer service message sends a caller into a reverie of unspeakable yearning. With the deft touch and funhouse-mirror perspectives for which he has won countless admirers, Steven Millhauser gives us the towns, marriages, and families of a quintessential American lifestyle that is at once instantly recognizable and profoundly unsettling. Disruptions is a collection of provocative, bracingly original new work from a writer at the peak of his form.

From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Martin Dressler: sixteen new stories—“spellbinding, masterly, sublime” (The New York Times Book Review)—that delve into the secret lives and desires of ordinary people, alongside retellings of myths and legends that highlight the aspirations of the human spirit. Beloved for the lens of the strange he places on small town life, Steven Millhauser further reveals in Voices in the Night the darkest parts of our inner selves to brilliant and dazzling effect. Here are stories of wondrously imaginative hyperrealism, stories that pose unforgettably unsettling what-ifs, or that find barely perceivable evils within the safe boundaries of our towns, homes, and even within our bodies. Here, too, are stories culled from religion and fables: Samuel, who hears the voice of God calling him in the night; a young, pre-enlightenment Buddha, who searches for his purpose in life; Rapunzel and her Prince, who struggle to fit the real world to their dream. Heightened by magic, the divine, and the uncanny, shot through with sly and winning humor, Voices in the Night seamlessly combines the whimsy and surprise of the familiar with intoxicating fantasies that take us beyond our daily lives, all done with the hallmark sleight of hand and astonishing virtuosity of one of our greatest contemporary storytellers.

PEN/Faulkner Award Finalist From the Pulitzer Prize–winning author: the essential stories across three decades that showcase his indomitable imagination. Steven Millhauser’s fiction has consistently, and to dazzling effect, dissolved the boundaries between reality and fantasy, waking life and dreams, the past and the future, darkness and light, love and lust. The stories gathered here unfurl in settings as disparate as nineteenth-century Vienna, a contemporary Connecticut town, the corridors of a monstrous museum, and Thomas Edison’s laboratory, and they are inhabited by a wide-ranging cast of characters, including a knife thrower and teenage boys, ghosts and a cartoon cat and mouse. But all of the stories are united in their unfailing power to surprise and enchant. From the earliest to the stunning, previously unpublished novella-length title story—in which a man who is dead, but not quite gone, reaches out to two lonely women—Millhauser in this magnificent collection carves out ever more deeply his wondrous place in the American literary canon.

Exploring the complexities of love, this collection features three novellas that delve into themes of betrayal, desire, and jealousy. In "Revenge," a home showing spirals into a narrative of psychic violence. "An Adventure of Don Juan" reimagines the legendary figure's escapades with tragic consequences. The title novella presents a poignant retelling of Tristan and Ysolt through King Mark's tortured perspective, highlighting his struggle with suspicion and denial. Millhauser's storytelling combines timeless enchantment with contemporary insights, showcasing his literary prowess.

The Review of Contemporary Fiction is a tri-quarterly journal that features critical essays on fiction writers whose work resists convention and easy categorization.

Set in a Connecticut town during a transformative summer night, the story features a captivating ensemble of characters. A group of teenage girls engages in a peculiar spree, leaving notes that read "We Are Your Daughters." Meanwhile, a young woman encounters a phantom lover on a tree swing, and a stunning mannequin mysteriously emerges from a store window. Abandoned dolls, once forgotten, come to life in the attic, adding an enchanting layer to the narrative. This blend of magical realism and youthful rebellion creates a unique reading experience.

Exploring the themes of obsession and imagination, this short story collection features "The Sisterhood of the Night," which has been adapted into a major motion picture. The bestselling author delves into the complexities of the human psyche, revealing both the brilliance and darker aspects that drive creativity. Each story invites readers to confront the hidden forces that shape our thoughts and desires, offering a profound look at the interplay between light and shadow in the realm of imagination.

A novel in the form of a biography of Edwin Mullhouse. As the author follows Edwin through hispre-verbal experiments with language, and his infatuations with comic books and the troubled 2nd grade temptress Rose Dorn, Edwin plunges us back into the pleasures and terrors of childhood, even as it plays havoc with our notions of genius and biography.

The Barnum Museum is a combination waxworks, masked ball, and circus sideshow masquerading as a collection of short stories. Within its pages, note such sights a study of the motives and strategies used by the participants in the game of Clue, including the seduction of Miss Scarlet by Colonel Mustard; the Barnum Museum, a fantastic, monstrous landmark so compelling that an entire town finds its citizens gradually and inexorably disappearing into it; a bored dilettante who constructs an imaginary woman - and loses her to an imaginary man! - and a legendary magician so skilled at sleight-of-hand that he is pursued by police for the crime of erasing the line between the real and the conjured.

The narrative revolves around Jeffrey Cartwright, who seeks to honor his deceased best friend, Edwin Mullhouse, a prodigious writer who died young. Jeffrey chronicles Edwin's journey from infancy to his literary achievements, highlighting his early fascination with comic books and culminating in the creation of his acclaimed novel, Cartoons. This exploration captures the essence of a gifted mind cut short, blending themes of friendship, creativity, and the impact of a life lived in pursuit of art.