To Be a Man by Nicole Krauss

To Be a Man by Nicole Krauss

O, The Oprah Magazine's 20 Best Titles of the Year

Time Magazine's 100 Books to Read in 2020 

Financial Times' Best Books of 2020

Esquire's Best Books of 2020

New York Times Editors' Choice

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2020

Bustle's Best Short Story Collections of 2020

Electric Literature's Favorite Short Story Collections of 2020

Library Journal's Best Short Stories of 2020

"Superb. . . . Krauss's
depictions of the nuances of sex and love, intimacy and dependence, call to
mind the work of Natalia Ginzburg in their psychological profundity, their
intellectual rigor. . . . Krauss's stories capture characters at moments in their
lives when they're hungry for experience and open to possibilities, and that
openness extends to the stories themselves: narratives too urgent and alive for
neat plotlines, simplistic resolutions or easy
answers."  --Molly Antopol, New York Times Book Review

 "From
a contemporary master, an astounding collection of ten globetrotting stories,
each one a powerful dissection of the thorny connections between men and
women. . . . Each story is masterfully crafted and deeply contemplative, barreling
toward a shimmering, inevitable conclusion, proving once again that Krauss is
one of our most formidable talents in fiction." --Esquire

In one of her strongest works of fiction yet, Nicole Krauss plunges fearlessly into the struggle to understand what it is to be a man and what it is to be a woman, and the arising tensions that have existed from the very beginning of time. Set in our contemporary moment, and moving across the globe from Switzerland, Japan, and New York City to Tel Aviv, Los Angeles, and South America, the stories in To Be a Man feature male characters as fathers, lovers, friends, children, seducers, and even a lost husband who may never have been a husband at all. 

The way these stories mirror one other and resonate is beautiful, with a balance so finely tuned that the book almost feels like a novel. Echoes ring through stages of life: aging parents and new-born babies; young women's coming of age and the newfound, somewhat bewildering sexual power that accompanies it; generational gaps and unexpected deliveries of strange new leases on life; mystery and wonder at a life lived or a future waiting to unfold. To Be a Man illuminates with a fierce, unwavering light the forces driving human existence: sex, power, violence, passion, self-discovery, growing older. Profound, poignant, and brilliant, Krauss's stories are at once startling and deeply moving, but always revealing of all-too-human weakness and strength. 

Nicole Krauss was born in 1974 in New York City and currently resides in Brooklyn. Esquire, The Paris Review, and Best American Short Stories have all published her work. Man Walks Into a Room was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Award and was called one of the most outstanding debuts of 2002 by Esquire.