Book description
Chosen by Paul Auster out of the four thousand stories submitted to his
radio programme on National Public Radio, these 180 stories provide a
wonderful portrait of America in the 20th century. The requirement for
selection was that each of the stories should be true, and each of the
writers should not have been previously published. The collection that
has emerged provides a richly varied and authentic voice for the
American people, whose lives, loves, griefs, regrets, joys and sense of
humour are vividly and honestly recounted throughout, and adeptly
organised by Auster into themed sections. The section composed of war
stories stretches as far back as the Civil War, still the defining
moment in American history; while the sequence of 'Meditations' conclude
the volume with a true and abiding sense of transcendence.
