{"product_id":"the-pelican-child-stories-joy-williams-hardcover","title":"The Pelican Child: Stories -- Joy Williams, Hardcover","description":"\u003cstrong\u003eLONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD - FINALIST FOR THE PEN\/JEAN STEIN BOOK AWARD - LONGLISTED FOR THE STORY PRIZE - NAMED A NOTABLE BOOK OF THE YEAR BY \u003ci\u003eTHE WASHINGTON POST - \u003c\/i\u003eA razor-sharp new collection of stories of visionary childhood misfits and struggling adult dreamers from this legendary writer of \"perfectly indescribable fiction . . . To read Williams is to look into the abyss\" (\u003ci\u003eThe Atlantic\u003c\/i\u003e). \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"An American master is back with crystalline stories that map the personal and political minefields of her unmoored characters. Williams blends everyday dramas with surreal imagery, her voice and range inspiring awe.\" --\u003ci\u003eBoston Globe\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"Night was best, for, as everyone knows but does not tell, the sobbing of the earth is most audible at night.\" \"Men are but unconscious machines and they perform their cruelties so effortlessly.\" \"Caring was a power she'd once possessed but had given up freely.\" The sentences of Joy Williams are like no others--the coiled wit, the sense of a confused and ruined landscape, even the slight whisper of hope that lurks between the words--for the scrupulous effort of telling, in these stories, has a ravishing beauty that belies their subjects. We meet lost souls such as the twin sister heiresses of a dirty industrial fortune in \"After the Haiku Period,\" who must commit a violent act in recompense for their family's deeds; in \"Nettle,\" we encounter a newly grown man who still revolves in a dreamscape of his childhood boarding-school innocence; and in the final story, we learn of the \"pelican child\" who lives with the \"bony, ill-tempered\" Baba Iaga \"in a little hut on chicken legs.\" \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eAll of these characters insist on exploring an indifferent and caustic world. They struggle against our degradation of the climate and of each other, possibly in vain. But each brief, haunted triumph of understanding is celebrated by Williams, a writer for our time and all time.\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/strong\u003e Joy Williams\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/strong\u003e Knopf Publishing Group\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePublished:\u003c\/strong\u003e 11\/18\/2025\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 176\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/strong\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWeight:\u003c\/strong\u003e 0.5 lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSize:\u003c\/strong\u003e 8.36\" H x 5.52\" L x 0.8\" W\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eISBN:\u003c\/strong\u003e 9780525657583\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Flowerburst","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50557264462128,"sku":"9780525657583","price":27.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0879\/2712\/8368\/files\/9780525657583.jpg?v=1783081372","url":"https:\/\/flowerburst.co\/products\/the-pelican-child-stories-joy-williams-hardcover","provider":"Flowerburst","version":"1.0","type":"link"}