Improvement by Joan Silber

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Improvement by Joan Silber

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Improvement by Joan Silber

The national bestseller and New York Times Notable Book about a young single mother living in New York, her eccentric aunt, and the decisions they make that have unexpected implications for the world around them from one of America's most gifted writers of fiction, our own country's Alice Munro (The Washington Post).

Reyna knows her relationship with Boyd isn't perfect, yet as she visits him throughout his three-month stint at Rikers Island, their bond grows tighter. Kiki, now settled in the East Village after a journey that took her to Turkey and around the world, admires her niece's spirit but worries that she always picks the wrong man. Little does she know that the otherwise honorable Boyd is pulling Reyna into a cigarette smuggling scheme, across state lines, where he could risk violating probation. When Reyna ultimately decides to remove herself for the sake of her four-year-old child, her small act of resistance sets into motion a tapestry of events that affect the lives of loved ones and strangers around them.

A novel that examines conviction, connection, and the possibility of generosity in the face of loss, Improvement is as intricately woven together as Kiki's beloved Turkish rugs, as colorful as the tattoos decorating Reyna's body, with narrative twists and turns as surprising and unexpected as the lives all around us. The Boston Globe says of Joan Silber: No other writer can make a few small decisions ripple across the globe, and across time, with more subtlety and power. Improvement is Silber's most shining achievement yet.

Without fuss or flourishes, Joan Silber weaves a remarkably patterned tapestry connecting strangers from around the world to a central tragic car accident. The writing here is funny and down-to-earth, the characters are recognizably fallible, and the message is quietly profound: We are not ever really alone, however lonely we feel. --The Wall Street Journal

Joan Silber has written nine works of fiction. Improving won the National Book Critics Circle Award while the PEN/Faulkner Award, and The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Newsday, The Seattle Times, and Kirkus Reviews named it one of the finest books of the year. She teaches in the Warren Wilson MFA Program in New York. Visit joansilber.net for additional information.

SKU Unavailable
ISBN 13 9781640091139
ISBN 10 1640091130
Title Improvement
Author Joan Silber
Condition Unavailable
Binding Type Paperback
Publisher Counterpoint
Year published 2018-08-21
Number of pages 240
Prizes Winner of PEN/Faulkner Award 2018
Cover note Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.