Molly-Mae: Behind It All - Part 2
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Rivka Galchen
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AMERICAN INNOVATIONS Paperback – 7 May 2015

by Galchen (Author)
3.9 out of 5 stars 96 ratings
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A short-story collection from one of America’s brightest young talents.

In one of these intensely imaginative stories a young woman’s furniture walks out on her. In another, the narrator feels compelled to deliver a takeout order that has incorrectly been phoned in to her. In a third, the petty details of a property transaction illuminate the complicated dependences and loves of a family.

Following spiralling paths towards utterly logical, entirely absurd conclusions, Galchen’s creations occupy a dreamlike dimension, where time is fluid and identities are best defined by the qualities they lack. The tales in this groundbreaking collection are secretly in conversation with canonical stories, allowing the reader the pleasure of discovering familiar favourites in new guises. Here ‘The Lost Order’ covertly recapitulates James Thurber’s ‘The Secret Life of Walter Mitty’, while ‘The Region of Unlikeness’ playfully mirrors Jorge Luis Borges’s ‘The Aleph’.

By turns realistic, fantastical and lyrical, all these marvellously uneasy stories share a deeply emotional core and are written in dryly witty, pitch-perfect prose. Whether exploring the tensions in a mother-daughter relationship or the finer points of time travel, Galchen is a writer of eye-opening ingenuity.

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  1. Print length
    192 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Fourth Estate
  4. Publication date
    7 May 2015
  5. Dimensions
    12.9 x 1.3 x 19.8 cm
  6. ISBN-10
    000754877X
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0007548774
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From the Publisher

bestselling literary books;bestselling fiction books;literary novels;top fiction books;fiction reads

bestselling literary books;bestselling fiction books;literary novels;top fiction books;fiction reads

bestselling literary books;bestselling fiction books;literary novels;top fiction books;fiction reads

bestselling literary books;bestselling fiction books;literary novels;top fiction books;fiction reads

Product description

Review

‘Inventive and appealing’ Independent on Sunday

‘The American short story's vintage year continues … Gently, Galchen interrogates the nature and necessity of innovation with results that prove hopeful, funny and innovative’ Max Liu, Independent

‘Dazed … Strikingly beautiful … Galchen's stories are funny and inventive. Many of them slyly translate the concerns of 19th-century fiction – money, property, gender – into the affectless, ironic voice of modern American fiction … One of the pleasures of American Innovations is the way the stories quietly echo and seep into one another… The prose is always expertly controlled’ David Wolf, Guardian

Praise for ‘Atmospheric Disturbances’:

'What is strongest in the novel is the delicacy with which Galchen evokes the bewildering randomness of Leo’s visionary insanity … An original and affecting novel, one that knows how to move from the comic to the painful.’ James Wood, New Yorker

'Genuinely suspenseful, fresh and wry … Galchen is a writer to be watched.’ The Economist

‘A playful and moving novel.’ Daily Telegraph

‘Playful yet profound, Murakami-esque yet original, analytical yet heartbreaking. It’s an absolutely stunning and unforgettable debut.’ Vendela Vida, author of ‘Let the Northern Lights Erase Your Name’

'A powerful novel about love, longing, Doppler radar, and the true appreciation of a nice cookie with your tea. “Atmospheric Disturbances” is fantastic.' Nathan Englander, author of 'The Ministry of Special Cases'

About the Author

Rivka Galchen received her MD from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, having spent a year in South America working on public health issues. Galchen completed her MFA at Columbia University, where she was a Robert Bingham Fellow. Her essay on the Many Worlds Interpretation of quantum mechanics was published in The Believer, and she is the recipient of a 2006 Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers’ Award. Galchen lives in New York City. She is the author of the novel Atmospheric Disturbances.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Fourth Estate (7 May 2015)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 192 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 000754877X
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0007548774
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 12.9 x 1.3 x 19.8 cm
  • Customer reviews:
    3.9 out of 5 stars 96 ratings

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Rivka Galchen

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Customer reviews

3.9 out of 5 stars
96 global ratings

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Top reviews from United Kingdom

  • irisfiamma
    5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 13 November 2014
    Verified Purchase
    Rivka Galchen is a superb writer of short stories! She really seizes the moment.
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  • Yvonne Aston
    3.0 out of 5 stars Somewhat Self Conscious
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 17 June 2014
    Verified Purchase
    I love the first writing style but for me it is too studied and outrageously self conscious. That said, I did read all the stories and found them amusing. I wouldn't specifically seek this author's writings in the future, but, I certainly wouldn't criticise her style.
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  • Suad
    1.0 out of 5 stars DNF
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 15 October 2017
    I really struggled to get through the first 4 stories in this book. And then I gave up. I closed the book, with a good, clear conscience, and put it away.

    This is the first book in a long, long, LONG time that I did not finish. It was disappointing, and I really struggled with the thought of putting it down without completing it first. Especially given that it's a collection of short stories, and that it could always change up in the next one, but I just couldn't wait to find out any longer. The stories were dull and long-winded and monotonous and went NOWHERE. The writing was pretentious and tedious and unnecessarily splashy.

    It was nothing like I expected it to be, and I was disappointed in my purchase. Money wasted.
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Top reviews from other countries

  • The Emmy Project
    5.0 out of 5 stars One of my favorite short story collections
    Reviewed in the United States on 1 October 2014
    Verified Purchase
    This is one of the best short story collections I've ever read - and I've read dozens. Many of Rivka Galchen's stories in this collection somehow manage to describe the sense of both living both within time and outside of it, conveying a reality that is both recognizable and surreal at the same time. There is gorgeous writing in these stories, as well as real humor. Buy this if you haven't already.
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  • Edward G. Molinaro
    4.0 out of 5 stars very perceptive
    Reviewed in the United States on 15 June 2014
    Verified Purchase
    I left one star off because some of the stories didn't do much for me. BUT the others are very enjoyable. Ms. Galchen writes in a style that carries the reader off effortlessly. She has a gift for descriptions and also much insight (often presented with humor) about the strange relationships we can find ourselves in.

    I highly recommend.

    Ed
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  • Melissa Weihnacht
    3.0 out of 5 stars Perplexing set of stories!
    Reviewed in the United States on 23 June 2018
    Verified Purchase
    The author has a great sense of humor. It was hard to get into. In some of the stories the characters had only initials or no names at all. All the stories seem to run together in my mind. Most of the members of my book club were perplexed by this book. We usually read award winning authors and not “beach reads,” but this one stumped us all!
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  • Christina
    5.0 out of 5 stars Very good
    Reviewed in the United States on 26 February 2020
    Verified Purchase
    Stories were very good everyone should read them
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  • Mr. Michael J. Whitting
    4.0 out of 5 stars Uncommon Stories
    Reviewed in the United States on 20 May 2014
    Verified Purchase
    Apparently these stories develop from those written by widely-known writers. Don't let that turn you off. There is a deep humanity to Galchen's work, which I didn't find in the originals that I recognised. The loneliness she finds all around her reminds me of what found in some of Lucinda Williams songs. Galchen uses few artifices, no epiphanies and the humour has to be searched for. Nevertheless she writes convincingly from the heart, regardless of the imitations she undertakes.
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