At Harper Perennial...we traffic in stories of all kinds. And we have a special fondness for the short story—self-contained, crystalline, newborn, perfect. This year we're celebrating the thriving art of the story by sharing a new one every week: most of them new, a few of them classics, from authors you know and some you don't, each of them treasurable in its language or wit or human insight. And we'd love to have you join us!Check it out @ www.fiftytwostories.com! (All of the stories are archived, so even though we're halfway through the year (26th story), you can still read them all.)
I just read this week's story, Broken Star, by Jennifer Haigh. Her latest novel, The Condition, sounds very interesting.
Synopsis:
The Condition tells the story of a proper New England family that comes apart one fateful summer. To their dismay, Frank and Paulette McKotch's daughter, Gwen, has been diagnosed with Turner's syndrome—a genetic condition that leaves her trapped forever in the body of a child, and sparks heated dispute between the couple. Twenty years later, their three children—now grown, and each struggling with secret conditions of their own—are still dealing with the fallout of Frank and Paulette's divorce. Then, suddenly, Gwen falls in love for the first time, and the family's world is again tilted on its axis.
In an era when individual quirks look increasingly like symptoms and every symptom demands to be treated, the McKotches are determined to fix themselves and each other. They are a family for our time.
