T. C. Boyle Books

This second volume of collected short fiction showcases the inventive and humorous storytelling of T.C. Boyle, a bestselling author and recipient of the 2015 Rea Award for the Short Story. Following the critical acclaim of his first collection, this edition compiles work from his three most recent collections along with fourteen previously unpublished stories and a reflective preface. Boyle's narratives range from mythic to realistic, farcical to tragic, capturing a wide spectrum of human emotions. The fifty-eight stories, written over the past eighteen years, reveal his evolving themes, including contemporary social issues such as air rage and the struggles of abortion doctors, alongside character-driven tales of quiet power and passion. Timeless themes of first love, mortality, and the tension between civilization and wildness are also explored. The new stories challenge characters' emotional and physical limits, featuring scenarios like giants bred for war, a Russian woman defying radiation warnings, a writer's unexpected journey for an award, and a man's excessive concern for a widow in a California town. With mordant wit, emotional depth, and exquisite prose, this collection stands as a testament to Boyle’s boundless imagination and storytelling prowess.

Gathered into one volume, the first four short story collections of T.C. Boyle, winner of the 2015 Rea Award for the Short StoryT. C. Boyle is one of the most inventive and wickedly funny short story writers at work today. Over the course of twenty-five years, Boyle has built up a body of short fiction that is remarkable in its range, richness, and exuberance. His stories have won accolades for their irony and black humor, for their verbal pyrotechnics, for their fascination with everything bizarre and queasy, and for the razor-sharp way in which they dissect America's obsession with image and materialism. Gathered together here are all of the stories that have appeared in his four previous collections, as well as seven that have never before appeared in book form. Together they comprise a book of small treasures, a definitive gift for Boyle fans and for every reader ready to discover the "ferocious, delicious imagination" ( Los Angeles Times Book Review ) of a "vibrant sensibility fully engaged with American society" ( The New York Times ).

Set in 1795, Water Music is the rambunctious account of two men's wild adventures through the gutters of London and the Scottish Highlands to their unlikely meeting in darkest Africa. Boyle's other works include The Tortilla Curtain.

A man falls from a roof whilst spying on his beautiful widowed neighbour. A newly married couple seeking enlightenment take a three year vow of silence and move to a yurt in the Arizona desert. A handsome young man works in real-estate by day, but has a far more sinister profession by night. An elderly woman is determined to return to her home in the countryside, despite the knowledge that in doing so she may be signing her own death warrant. Giant men are kept in cages to ensure their nightly service to their country. A man develops an unhealthy interest in his recently deceased reclusive rock-star neighbour. And on Christmas day at the San Francisco Zoo a terrible and tragic event occurs...T.C. Boyle Stories II comprises three later volumes of short fiction - After the Plague, Tooth and Claw and Wild Child - along with a new collection, A Death in Kitchawank. These fifty-eight stories explore the mundane, the devastating, the figurative and the implausible in a masterful and enthralling collection. T.C. Boyle is a writer at the height of his craft.

T. Coraghessan Boyle is regarded as one of America's greatest living short-story writers. This volume brings all his stories together for the first time.

This second volume of collected short fiction from a bestselling author and 2015 Rea Award winner showcases T.C. Boyle's love of storytelling and language. Following the critical acclaim of his first collection, this edition compiles works from his three most recent collections, along with fourteen new, previously unpublished tales and a preface reflecting on his writing journey. Boyle's stories are a blend of mythic and realistic elements, often farcical yet tragic, ironic yet moving, capturing a wide range of human emotions. The fifty-eight stories span the last eighteen years, highlighting maturing themes alongside the satires and tall tales that established his reputation. Readers will encounter narratives addressing contemporary social issues, such as air rage and abortion, alongside character-driven tales of quiet power and passion. Timeless themes like first love and mortality also resonate throughout. The new stories challenge characters’ emotional and physical limits, featuring scenarios like giants bred for war, a Russian woman returning to a contaminated home, and a man in a California town whose concern for a widow leads him astray. With mordant wit, emotional depth, and exquisite prose, this collection is a testament to a boundless imagination.

This new collection of short stories from T. C. Boyle finds him at his mercurial best. Inventive, wickedly funny, sometimes disturbing, these are stories about drop-outs, deadbeats and kooks. Take the man who shares his apartment with a wildcat won in a drunken bet; the drive-time shock jock hallucinating from sleep deprivation for a publicity stunt; the suburban woman who joins a pack of dogs, eating rabbits and baying at the moon. With a unique deftness of touch and a keen eye for the telling detail, Boyle has mapped the strange underworld of America.

The latest masterpiece from the unstoppable T.C. Boyle, a sweeping epic of family, ecology and the right to life - no matter what the fallout

Walter Van Brunt is a dreamer, and a lover of drugs, alcohol and speed. He likes nothing better than to fly along on his motorbike, invincible and immortal. But one day, dodging a mysterious shadow on the road, he crashes into a barrier and loses his right foot. Walter is a descendant of Dutch yeomen and since the day of the accident he has been haunted by their ghosts. When he receives a new plastic foot he is determined to find his father who deserted his family years ago, and to uncover the secrets of his ancestors.

The lives of three women on turn-of-the-20th-century San Miguel are shaped by ambition and circumstance, including the wife of a Civil War veteran who hopes to recover her health, her rebellious aspiring actress daughter and a librarian who wonders if the island's peace will endure in the face of looming war.

Recognized as one of the best novels of the year by Newsweek, this book delves into compelling themes and intricate character development. It weaves a captivating narrative that engages readers with its unique storytelling and profound insights. The author skillfully explores the complexities of human relationships and societal issues, making it a thought-provoking read. With its rich prose and emotional depth, it promises to leave a lasting impression on those who embark on this literary journey.

Discusses his "obsession with food," as well as "the stigma of being overweight in a society obsessed with thinness."

For fans of outrageous and fascinating animal narratives such as Netflix’s “Tiger King,” a collection of tales by the renowned T.C. Boyle that explore humanity’s wild side Since his first collection of stories, Descent of Man, appeared in 1979, T.C. Boyle has become an acknowledged master of the form who has transformed the nature of short fiction in our time. Among the fourteen tales in his seventh collection are the comic yet lyrical title story, in which a young man wins a vicious African cat in a bar bet; "Dogology," about a suburban woman losing her identity to a pack of strays; and "The Kind Assassin," which explores the consequences of a radio shock jock's quest to set a world record for sleeplessness. Muscular, provocative, and blurring the boundaries between humans and nature, the funny and the shocking, Tooth and Claw is Boyle at his best.

T. C. Boyle is one of the most inventive and wickedly funny short story writers at work today. Over the course of twenty-five years, Boyle has built up a body of short fiction that is remarkable in its range, richness, and exuberance. His stories have won accolades for their irony and black humor, for their verbal pyrotechnics, for their fascination with everything bizarre and queasy, and for the razor-sharp way in which they dissect America's obsession with image and materialism. Gathered together here are all of the stories that have appeared in his four previous collections, as well as seven that have never before appeared in book form. Together they comprise a book of small treasures, a definitive gift for Boyle fans and for every reader ready to discover the "ferocious, delicious imagination" (Los Angeles Times Book Review) of a "vibrant sensibility fully engaged with American society" (The New York Times). Copyright © Libri GmbH. All rights reserved.

T.C. Boyle was first feted as a master of the short story for his critically acclaimed Greasy Lake . With these stories applauded by People magazine as "wickedly comical," he displays once again a virtuosity and versatility rare in literary America today. Without a Hero zooms in on American phenomena such as a center for the treatment of acquisitive disorders; a couple in search of the last toads on earth; and a real estate wonder boy on a dude safari near convenient Bakerfield, California. Sharp, guileful, and malevolently funny, Boyle's stories are "more than funny, better than wicked," says The Philadelphia Inquirer . "They make you cringe with their clarity."

It is the seventies, at the height of flower power. Star has just joined Drop City, a hippie commune in sunny California living the simple, natural life. But underneath the drugs, music and transcendent bliss, she slowly discovers tensions and sexual rivalries that threaten to split the community apart. A world away in Boynton, a tiny town in the interior of Alaska, Sess Harder, a pioneer who actually does live off the land, hunting, trapping and fishing, yearns for someone to share the harsh winters with him. When the authorities threaten to close down Drop City, the hippies abandon camp and head up north to Alaska, the last frontier. But neither they nor the inhabitants of Boynton are completely prepared for each other - and as the two communities collide, unexpected friendships and dangerous enmities are born.

A feral boy is captured and 'civilised' in the Languedoc region. A young woman is hired to look after a cloned dog that cost its owners $250,000. A widower in a self-satisfied suburb engulfs his loneliness in a sea of rats. A weary city GP is baffled by a Mexican boy, the son of a taco-seller, who can feel no pain. A junior film editor invents the death of his own daughter because he can't face going in to work. A vindictive teenager with a gasoline fixation runs into trouble with his Japanese neighbour. Two washed-up crooners in 1950s New York get creative while recording a schmaltzy Christmas special. In this beguiling new collection of stories, T. C. Boyle, one of the world's greatest storytellers, explores the improbable, the tragic, the allegorical and the altogether ordinary.

An account of Dr. John Harvey Kellogg, inventor of cornflakes and peanut butter, his flawed son, and the rise of America's first health enthusiasts. The author, T. Correghessan Boyle, is known for "Water Music," "Budding Prospects," and "The Tortilla Curtain."

The joyfully freewheeling, funny and profound new novel from 'one of the most inventive, adventurous and accomplished fiction writers in the US today' (Lionel Shriver) Welcome to America. On the east coast, homes are being swallowed by the ocean; on the west coast, California is engulfed with wildfire. But for one family, the impending environmental disaster is the least of their worries. Party girl Cat just impulse-purchased a snake; her pious brother Cooper is wrestling with a tic bite; and their mom Ottilie has resorted to cooking with crickets. Everyone is drinking too much - and the bugs seems to be disappearing. It seems as if it's anything but blue skies ahead... A delightfully dark comedy of manners about family life at the end of the world, Blue Skies is a masterful new adventure from one of the America's great comic writers. _______________ 'Always enjoyable, virtually incapable of dullness or slack sentences ... His stories reveal truths about modern life while still feeling beautifully invented' - NEW YORK TIMES 'A virtuoso craftsman' - ANNIE PROULX 'Boyle is a writer who chooses a large canvas and fills it to the edges' - BARBARA KINGSOLVER

A dazzlingly written and wickedly sexy read from one of the giants of American contemporary fictions; 'Boyle just gets better and better' (Daily Mail) In 1939, on the campus of Indiana University, a revolution has begun. The stir is caused by Alfred Kinsey, a zoologist who is determined to take sex out of the bedroom. John Milk, a freshman, is enthralled by the professor's daring lectures and over the next two decades becomes Kinsey's right hand man. But Kinsey teaches Milk more than the art of objective enquiry. Behind closed doors, he is a sexual enthusiast of the highest order and as a member of his 'inner circle' of researchers, Milk is called on to participate in experiments that become increasingly uninhibited ...

Topanga Canyon is home to two couples on a collision course. Los Angeles liberals Delaney and Kyra Mossbacher lead an ordered sushi-and-recycling existence in a newly gated hilltop community: he a sensitive nature writer, she an obsessive realtor. Mexican illegals Candido and America Rincon desperately cling to their vision of the American Dream as they fight off starvation in a makeshift camp deep in the ravine. From the moment a freak accident brings Candido and Delaney into intimate contact, these four and their opposing worlds gradually intersect in what becomes a tragicomedy of error and misunderstanding.

A collection of short stories from the author of The Tortilla Curtain.

Will Lightbody is a man with a stomach ailment whose only sin is loving his wife, Eleanor, too much. Eleanor is a health nut of the first stripe, and when in 1907 she journeys to Dr. John Harvey Kellogg's infamous Battle Creek Spa to live out the vegetarian ethos, poor Will goes too. So begins T. Coraghessan Boyle's wickedly comic look at turn-of-the-century fanatics in search of the magic pill to prolong their lives - or the profit to be had from manufacturing it. Brimming with a Dickensian cast of characters and laced with wildly wonderful plot twists, Jane Smiley in The New York Times Book Review called The Road to Wellville "a marvel, enjoyable from beginning to end."

How far would you go to save someone you love? And what if that someone was ... not exactly human? Guy Schermerhorn, brilliant young professor of psychology and disciple of the pioneering Dr Moncrieff, is making a name for himself on the talk show circuit with an unusual protege in tow: a chimp by the name of Sam. Sam lives in Guy's apartment, wears diapers and neckties, devours pizza and Macdonalds - and, through Guy's careful training, can communicate through sign language. But living with Sam is wreaking havoc on Guy's personal life, and when shy, meek undergraduate Aimee Villard volunteers to take on babysitting for him, he can't believe his luck. Aimee and Sam have an immediate rapport, and before Guy knows it she's moved in, proudly devoting herself to Sam's care and Guy's project. Aimee has never known purpose and happiness like this; but when Guy's funding is imperilled, and Sam is taken away by the sinister Moncrief, her world falls apart. Aimee discovers just how far she'll go to, and just what she'll risk, to be united with the chimp she's come to love so much.

BY THE WINNER OF THE JONATHAN SWIFT PRIZE 2017 A dynamic new collection from one of our most original storytellers: satirical, surreal and very much of the moment. In these stories, T. C. Boyle focuses his unerring eye on humanity's relationship with nature, and the unintended consequences of our efforts to control it. The prize-winning 'Are We Not Men?' reflects on the impact of new gene-editing technologies while 'The Relive Box' parodies our obsession with electronic games. In 'She's the Bomb', a young woman waits on her graduation day, heart in mouth, for an explosive event. A burrito-seller has a killer business idea in 'The Five-Pound Burrito', but learns that success comes at a price. An Italian couple moves south for a fresh start in 'The Argentine Ant', but finds that paradise holds a nasty sting. And in the chilling 'The Designee', a lonely widower can't believe his luck when he receives a mysterious letter from England. In electric prose T. C. Boyle explores myriad facets of society: greed and excess, parenthood and responsibility, the digital world and the way we understand our mortality. Roaming unrestrainedly through the present and near future, he inhabits his characters' minds with a ventriloquist's flair, skewering human motivations and revealing us to ourselves with empathy and wry humour.

Tyrone O'Shaugnessy Tierwater, suburban drudge, is manager of an antiquated shopping centre in New York. His life is changed dramatically by his marriage to Andrea, a well-known environmental activist. Flashing forward to 2025, Tyrone is now manager of a pop star's private animal menagerie.

Stanley McCormick is the brilliant but highly-strung son of one of the greatest inventors of the nineteenth century. Shortly after marrying Katherine, Stanley suffers a nervous breakdown, is diagnosed with a tormenting sex mania and is imprisoned in the forbidding mansion known as Riven Rock. For more than twenty years, Stanley has been confined to locked quarters within the luxurious Santa Barbara estate attended to by a staff of male nurses and a succession of psychiatrists, each anxious to apply the latest cure. Yet Katherine remains strong in her belief that one day he will return to her whole.

Young Japanese seaman Hiro Tanaka, inspired by dreams of the City of Brotherly Love and trained in the ways of the samurai, jumps ship off the coast of Georgia and swims into a net of rabid rednecks, genteel ladies, descendants of slaves, and the denizens of an artists' colony. In the hands of T. Coraghessan Boyle, praised by Digby Diehl in Playboy as "one of the most exciting young fiction writers in America," the result is a sexy, hilarious tragicomedy of thwarted expectations and mistaken identity, love, jealousy, and betrayal.

It began at a place modestly described as the healthiest on the planet: the Battle Creek Sanitarium, home of Dr John Harvey Kellogg – best-selling health writer, first guru of bran and grunt, the Santa Claus of the digestive tract. And yes – of course! – he invented the cornflake, but it was only a tiny element in a veritable encyclopedia of historically comparable yum-yum tummy treats: caramel coffee (caffeine-free), Bromose (to facilitate auto-intoxication), Nuttolene (for interior cleanliness) and seventy-five other gastrically correct, biologically imperious, devastatingly healthy goodies. Dr John Harvey Kellogg's greatest achievement, however, did not come in a packet: it required instruction (and discipline). In 1907 middle America, near the founding factories of the cornflake, his patients were exposed to the invigorating properties of the five-times-a-day enema, the nourishing qualities of protose fillets, beetroot soufflés and okra soup (a diet so rich in bulk that bowels burst to exonerate themselves) and, most important, the restorative effects of relentless self-denial.

In the title story of this collection, Boyle has created a vivid and original retelling of the story of Victor, the feral boy who was captured running through the forests of Napoleonic France. The tale is a powerful investigation of what it means to be human.

It is 2025 and Tyrone O'Shaughnessy Tierwater is the manager of a private menagerie of some of the last surviving animals in the world. Global warming is a reality. In his youth, as an environmental activist, Tyrone endangered the life of his wife, Andrea, and daughter, Sierra. Now Andrea is back.

Sten Stenson, Vietnam veteran and retired school principal, and his wife, Carolee, are on a cruise in Costa Rica when their coach excursion is hijacked. Sten's military training overtakes him and within moments one of the attackers lies dead. The rest flee and Sten finds himself hailed a hero by the tour group and everyone back home. Meanwhile, in the redwood forests north of San Francisco, Sara - a farrier who refuses to recognize the authority of the government - is arrested after failing to cooperate with police at a routine stop. A chance meeting with twenty-five-year-old Adam, Sten and Carolee's unstable son, sparks a strange but passionate relationship fuelled by a mutual hatred of the law. Adam, an angry and misunderstood outsider, perennially dressed in camouflage and with his head shaved to the bone, has an unhealthy obsession with nineteenth-century mountain man John Colter.

One family's adventures in LSD: the brilliantly strange new novel from the mind of 'one of the most inventive, adventurous and accomplished fiction writers in the US today' (Lionel Shriver)Chosen as a Book of the Year 2019 by the HeraldIt is Harvard in the early 1960s. Just off campus, Dr Timothy Leary plays host for his PhD students, laying on a spread of cocktails, pizza and LSD. Among the guests is Fitzhugh Loney, a psychology student, and his librarian wife Joanie. Married young, and both diligently and unglamorously toiling to support their son, they are not the sort of people one would expect to be seduced by the nascent drug culture. But their nights on LSD prove so extraordinary - so revelatory, so earth-shattering, so downright seductive - that Fitzhugh and Joanie are soon captive to the whims of the charismatic and subversive Dr Tim. Follow Fitzhugh and Joanie on their quest for transcendence, as sultry Mexican nights at Hotel Catalina give way to a ramshackle mansion in upstate New York, where thirty devotees - students, wives and children - play out the final act of a terrible, beautiful experiment. Join us, won't you? It's going to be one hell of a trip.

A deep and disturbing meditation on the roots of American gun violence, T.C. Boyle's 'The Harder They Come' explores the fine line between heroism and savagery, and just how far a parent can be held accountable for the actions of his child

From the bestselling author of The Women comes an action-packed adventure about endangered animals and their protectors. Set on the wild Channel Islands off Santa Barbara, T.C. Boyle's powerful novel blends thrilling adventure with a socially conscious tale about humanity's impact on the natural world. Alma Boyd Takesue, a National Park Service biologist, leads efforts to save the island's endangered species from invasive threats like rats and feral pigs, which she believes must be eradicated. Her adversary, Dave LaJoy, a local businessman, along with his lover, folksinger Anise Reed, opposes the killing of any species and will go to great lengths to thwart Alma's plans. Their escalating confrontation reveals the destructive power of nature itself. Boyle enriches the narrative by recounting the harrowing story of Alma's grandmother, Beverly, the sole survivor of a 1946 shipwreck, and Anise's mother, Rita, who worked on a sheep ranch in the late 1970s. This clash between environmental protectors and animal rights activists raises essential questions about ownership of land and the lives of all creatures sharing our planet. While offering no clear answers, the novel, like Boyle's classic The Tortilla Curtain, deeply resonates and challenges readers to reflect on these pressing issues.

The Bloomsbury Birthday Quids are small editions of short stories by major writers, in a format and style of the Bloomsbury Classics. Printed on high-quality paper, designed by Jeff Fisher, the books should become collectors' items. This title is She Wasn't Soft by T. Coraghessan-Boyle.

A joyful, freewheeling, funny and profound new collection from 'one of the most inventive, adventurous and accomplished fiction writers in the US today' (Lionel Shriver) For one woman, a cross-country train ride becomes a parallel journey into the dark psyche of American manhood. An old man and his neighbour enter strike up a friendship that might a more sinister battle of wits than he first thinks. A man, waiting for his wife in a bar on Valentine's Day, is plagued by a stranger who claims to be clairvoyant. In electric prose T. C. Boyle explores myriad facets of society: greed and excess, parenthood and responsibility, the digital world and the way we understand our mortality. Roaming unrestrainedly through the present and near future, he inhabits his characters' minds with a ventriloquist's flair, skewering human motivations and revealing us to ourselves with empathy and wry humour.

Welcome to the troubled, tempestuous world of Frank Lloyd Wright. Scandalous affairs rage behind closed doors, broken hearts are tossed aside, fires rip through the wings of the house and paparazzi lie in wait outside the front door for the latest tragedy in this never-ending saga. This is the home of the great architect of the twentieth century, a man of extremes in both his work and his private life: at once a force of nature and an avalanche of need and emotion that sweeps aside everything in its path. Sharp, savage and subtle in equal measure, "The Women" plumbs the chaos, horrors and uncontainable passions of a formidable American icon.

The first time he saw Dana, she was dancing barefoot, her hair aflame in the red glow of the club, her body throbbing with rhythms and cross-rhythms that only she could hear. He was mesmerised. That night they were both deaf, mouthing to each other over the booming bass. By then he was falling in love. Now, she is in a courtroom, her legs shackled, as a list of charges is read out. She is accused of auto theft, possession of a controlled substance, assault with a deadly weapon - the list goes on. Clearly there has been a terrible mistake. And, as Dana and Bridger set out to find the person who is living a blameless life of criminal excess at her expense, they begin to test the life they have built together to its limits. "Talk Talk" is both a thrilling road trip across America and a moving story about language, love and identity from one of America's finest novelists.

Linda is desperate to be one of the lucky eight chosen to take part in the world's most ambitious ecological experiment. Gazing longingly at Ecosphere II, which rises like a spaceship from the Arizona desert, Linda knows she can survive under its glass dome. Competition is fierce between the hopefuls, among them smooth-talking PR man Ramsay, and Dawn, a naïve beauty. All are certain that they would never, ever, break closure before two years are up - unlike their discredited predecessors.Inside this humid microcosm, the terranauts' labours over crops and livestock, their battles with creepy crawlies, their hostilities and sexual dalliances are all observed by the tourists who come to gawp, Mission Control's cameras and the watchful eye of the media. As the crew struggles to control nature, and hunger sets in, the snake in this Eden starts to look unmistakably human.Inspired by real-life events, The Terranauts is a darkly comic, acutely insightful story of human behaviour, animal instincts, idealism and ambition. Placing utopian visions and individual motives under the microscope, this is T. C. Boyle at his acerbic, pitch-perfect best.

The author's sixth collection of short stories displays his wide-ranging interests in everything from abortion doctors to air rage.

Amori più o meno felici, tragedie più o meno ridicole, nevrosi, frustrazioni, complotti e famiglie squinternate: sono gli elementi che T.C. Boyle mette in scena sullo sfondo di un conflitto fra un gruppo di ambientalisti radicali capitanati da un quarantenne post-fricchettone e la rappresentante dell’ente per la protezione del parco naturale delle Channel Islands, al largo delle coste californiane. In un gioco paradossale, in nome del ripristino di un teorico stato naturale, l’ente parco finisce per ingaggiare cacciatori professionisti per sterminare specie non native presenti sulle isole, mentre gli ambientalisti vi introducono di soppiatto predatori (crotali) per sabotare il programma. Intanto la natura, indifferente e sovrana, fa il suo corso… Una storia che si snoda, secondo uno schema caro alla letteratura americana, lungo tre generazioni di donne intraprendenti e determinate, correndo sotto lo sguardo ironico e apparentemente distaccato di Boyle verso un finale inaspettato che recupera la dimensione privata della vicenda adombrando imponderabili scenari futuri.

Die Tür ging auf, und da stand er. Er richtete sich kerzengerade auf, mit soviel Würde, wie man von einem erwachsenen Mann mit roter Badekappe und rosa Trikot eben erwarten kann, und kam ins Büro hineingehoppelt.« Fliegenmenschen, Großwildjäger und Polarforscher ganz eigener Art entwirft T.C. Boyle in den sechs Erzählungen dieses Bandes. Wild, absurd, voll von schwarzem Humor sind sie - außergewöhnlich illustriert von Susanne Berner. Als Gegenleistung fordert Boyle nur eins von seinen den Rest der Welt draußen zu lassen und für ein oder zwei seltsame oder kostbare Stunden sein wackliges, surresales Universum zu betreten ...

T.C. Boyles neuer großer Roman über die obsessive Liebe zweier Männer zu einer Frau, die sich zwischen ihnen nicht entscheiden mag: Terry, ein Arzt aus Los Angeles, zieht nach dem Tod seiner Mutter in ihr Haus in Boulder City in der Wüste Nevadas. Eigentlich wollte er es verkaufen, wäre er nicht in einer Bar Bethany begegnet, die sich bei ihm einquartiert – gegen seinen Willen. Der eigenbrötlerische Terry kann ihr nicht widerstehen. Aber da ist auch noch ihr eifersüchtiger Ex-Freund Jesse, der immer wieder auftaucht und ihn warnt: »Sie ist Gift«. Mitten in der Wüste geraten die beiden Männer aneinander. T.C. Boyles »No Way Home« ist große Literatur über menschliche Abgründe.

»Ich schätze, die Hälfte des Wegs zur Hölle haben wir schon hinter uns.« Wenn in T. C. Boyles Amerika von »Good Home« die Rede ist, darf man auf alles gefasst sein: Eine Zwölfjährige soll vor Gericht gegen ihren alkoholkranken Vater aussagen. Ein Witwer legt sich eine Schlange zu, aber die Ratten, mit denen er sie füttern will, wachsen ihm so sehr ans Herz, dass er dreizehnhundert von ihnen beherbergt.  Die neuesten Stories des amerikanischen Bestsellerautors sind skurril, witzig und bitterböse.

Ob apokalyptische Szenarien oder nahezu normale Alltagsschicksale: Brillant, witzig und böse behandelt T. C. Boyle in den beiden Erzählungen „Guten Flug“ und „Die schwarz-weißen Schwestern“ Themen, die schon längst nicht mehr als rein amerikanische zu gelten haben.

Tiefgründig, originell, brillant: Die besten Geschichten von T. C. Boyle Ein Mann flieht mit seiner Familie vor den Gefahren der Zivilisation in die Wildnis und weckt dort den Dämon in sich. Eine junge Liebe scheitert an der Sucht nach Sauberkeit und Keimfreiheit. Eine Wissenschaftlerin wird in einem Orkan von einem umherfliegenden Kater zu Fall gebracht und begegnet ihrer großen Liebe. In T. C. Boyles Geschichten lauert die Apokalypse hinter jeder Straßenecke, und es wimmelt nur so von schrägen Typen, schicksalhaften Entscheidungen und dramatischen Begegnungen. 

14 Geschichten von einem der stärksten amerikanischen Erzähler der letzten Jahrzehnte. Normalerweise bleibt es beim Biertrinken, Haschrauchen und ein paar gierigen Blicken auf die wenigen Mädchen, die sich nachts zum See raustrauen. Aber an diesem Tag ist alles anders. Es kommt zur Gewalt. Mit wenigen Strichen umreißt T. C. Boyle die ganze Atmosphäre der siebziger Jahre. Seine Geschichten sind prall voll mit Action, Witz und Überraschungen.

14 Geschichten vom Kochen und Vögeln, mörderischen Adoptivkindern, dem Teufel und der Heiligen Jungfrau.

Ein Mensch? Ein Tier? Oder irgendetwas dazwischen? Neben Kaspar Hauser war Victor von Aveyron der berühmteste Fall eines „Wolfskinds“. Eine nackte Kreatur, die sich, in Südfrankreich von Jägern entdeckt, auf einem Baum versteckt. Er kann nicht sprechen, isst Nüsse und Wurzeln und verabscheut gekochte Speisen. Ist sein merkwürdiges Verhalten kulturell oder biologisch bedingt? Ist der Mensch - frei nach Rousseau - von Natur aus gut, oder prägt erst die Erziehung sein Wesen? Boyle, der in den USA lebende Autor, hat sich des Falles Victor von Aveyron angenommen. In seinem zutiefst ergreifenden Porträt eines Wolfskindes geht er der subtilen Grenze nach, an der sich entscheidet, wer Mensch und wer Tier ist.

Wilde, absurde Geschichten Geschichten, die das Leben schrieb: eine Primatenforscherin verliebt sich in einen Schimpansen, zwei Champions wetteifern darum, wer den anderen unter den Tisch frißt, eine Hippiekommune auf dem Lande wird von einem Blutregen überrascht, ein Mann will sein Auto reparieren lassen und muß am Ende froh sein, daß er wenigstens mit heiler Haut davonkommt, ein anderer besteht schlimme Abenteuer auf der Suche nach einer aztekischen Bierdose. Wilde, absurde Geschichten mit sehr viel schwarzem Humor aus T. C. Boyle-Country. Inhalt: - Abstammung- Der Champion- Wir sind Nordländer- Ein Herz und eine Seele- Blutregen- Er schwimmt wieder- Dada- Ein Frauenrestaurant- Geschichten vom Aussterben- Caye- Die große Werkstatt- Grüne Hölle- Erde, Mond- Quetzalcoatl Lite- De Rerum Natura- John Barleycorn lebt- Tod durch Ertrinken

Die Geschichte beleuchtet den Kampf von Cat und Todd gegen die verheerenden Folgen des Klimawandels in einer zunehmend instabilen Welt. Trotz ihrer Bemühungen, umweltfreundliche Lösungen wie ein elektrisches Auto und selbstgezüchtete Insekten zu integrieren, wird die Bedrohung durch Naturkatastrophen immer präsenter. Die einst sichere Existenz der amerikanischen Mittelschicht wird auf die Probe gestellt, während die Protagonisten versuchen, sich den Herausforderungen der menschengemachten Apokalypse zu stellen.

'Die Tür ging auf, und da stand er. Er richtete sich kerzengerade auf, mit soviel Würde, wie man von einem erwachsenen Mann mit roter Badekappe und rosa Trikot eben erwarten kann, und kam ins Büro hineingehoppelt.' Fliegenmenschen, Großwildjäger und Polarforscher ganz eigener Art entwirft T. C. Boyle in den sechs Erzählungen dieses Bandes. Wild, absurd, voll von schwarzem Humor sind sie - außergewöhnlich illustriert von Susanne Berner. Als Gegenleistung fordert Boyle nur eins von seinen Lesern: den Rest der Welt draußen zu lassen und für ein oder zwei seltsame oder kostbare Stunden sein wackliges, surresales Universum zu betreten.