{"title":"The Flannery O'connor Award For Short Fiction","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"love-in-theory-book-e-j-levy-9780820348278","title":"Love, in Theory","description":"In this funny, thoroughly engaging debut collection, an award-winning writer looks at romance through the lens of scholarly theories to illuminate love in the information age. In ten captivating stories, E.J. Levy takes readers through the surprisingly erotic terrain of the intellect, offering a smart and modern take on the age-old theme of love.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49864360591633,"sku":"CIN0820348279G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52737666220305,"sku":"NLS9780820348278","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52737696235793,"sku":"NIN9780820348278","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0820348279.jpg?v=1763632904"},{"product_id":"bright-shards-of-someplace-else-book-monica-mcfawn-9780820346878","title":"Bright Shards of Someplace Else","description":"\u003cp\u003eIn the eleven kaleidoscopic stories that make up \u003ci\u003eBright Shards of Someplace Else\u003c\/i\u003e, Monica McFawn traces the combustive, hilarious, and profound effects that occur when people misread the minds of others. The characters--an array of artists, scientists, songwriters, nannies, horse trainers, and poets--often try to pin down another's point of view, only to find that their own worldview is far from fixed. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e The characters in McFawn's stories long for and fear the encroachment of others. A young boy reduces his nanny's phone bill with a call, then convinces her he can solve her other problems. A man who works at a butterfly-release business becomes dangerously obsessed with solving a famous mathematical proof. A poetry professor finds himself entangled in the investigation of a murdered student. In the final story, an aging lyricist reconnects with a renowned singer to write an album in the Appalachian Mountains, only to be interrupted by the appearance of his drug-addicted son and a mythical story of recovery. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e By turns exuberant and philosophically adroit, \u003ci\u003eBright Shards of Someplace Else\u003c\/i\u003e reminds us of both the limits of empathy and its absolute necessity. Our misreadings of others may be unavoidable, but they themselves can be things of beauty, charm, and connection.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50363367915793,"sku":"CIN082034687XG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/082034687X.jpg?v=1751106814"},{"product_id":"thieves-i-ve-known-book-tom-kealey-9780820345376","title":"Thieves I've Known","description":"\u003cp\u003eIn these wondrously strange and revealing stories, Tom Kealey chronicles the struggles and triumphs of the young and marginalized as they discover many ways of growing up. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eTheir names are Merrill, Omar, Shelby, Laika, Winston, and Toomey, but most people don't see them. They are boxers in training and the children of fishermen. They are altar boys in a poverty-stricken parish. They are assistant groundskeepers and assistant camel-keepers. They travel with the circus, care for disabled siblings, steal police cars, and retrieve the stolen boots of a priest. Ranging in abode from Puget Sound, Washington, to Pamlico Sound, North Carolina, they are abandoned yet courageous and plucky children and teenagers living on the edges of society. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003eThieves I've Known\u003c\/i\u003e is a collection of powerful, moving stories about the lives of a redemptive and peculiar cast of young characters who become easy to know and difficult to forget.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50371661955345,"sku":"CIN0820345377G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0820345377.jpg?v=1751395398"},{"product_id":"viewing-room-book-jacquelin-gorman-9780820345482","title":"The Viewing Room","description":"\u003cp\u003eIn \u003ci\u003eThe Viewing Room\u003c\/i\u003e, two hospital chaplains console the living during the moments when they look upon their beloved dead for one last time in a large urban hospital in Los Angeles. But this room is also a character, linking stories together and bearing witness in chilling testimony of grief and wisdom. Henrietta and Maurice, the chaplains, are ministers who have lost their faith due to devastating personal tragedy. Still, they regain their hold on their own lives through their work, one death at a time. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eJacquelin Gorman lays bare nine parallel worlds of suffering in stories of unflinching detail, vividly told with heart, guts, and compassion. In these pages, the children are both murderers and victims, and the adults fare no better: a teenage father shakes his screaming baby to death; high school surfers kill the homeless for sport as a way of cleaning up their beaches; a Muslim basketball player readies her best friend for burial with a sacred ritual that reveals forbidden love; a scorned ex-wife leaves a message in permanent ink on the body of her betrayer; and a pet therapy dog's unconditional love for a decaying body memorializes the spirit within. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThis moving and unsettling collection of stories shines a piercing light on the dark corners of our modern world, illuminating necessary truths that convey a clearer and, undoubtedly, greater vision of humanity.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50371666313489,"sku":"CIN0820345482G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51008508330257,"sku":"NIN9780820345482","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0820345482.jpg?v=1751395398"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/collections\/the-flannery-o-connor-award-for-short-fiction-book-series.oembed","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}