You Would Have Told Me Not To by Christopher Coake

You Would Have Told Me Not To by Christopher Coake

These stories (and one novella) arrive in the midst of the #Metoo movement. They examine the fallout from failed relationships between men and women, relationships that have crumbled under the weight of betrayal, misplaced hopes, illness―and in particular, from masculinity at its most toxic and misguided. A man in his mid-thirties receives a call from a woman he barely knew who informs him that a girl he bedded and dumped in high school has died of cancer. Another man who had an affair and left a woman without any warning finds himself working on a demolition job with a younger man who might be their son. Another man, obese for years, is left by his wife, loses weight and, drunk with the power of being finally fit, disastrously tries to reconnect with his former spouse. And in the title story of the collection, a woman summoned to the bedside of her son who has suffered a gunshot wound must finally come to terms with the serial infidelities of her charming ex-husband. These fictions ask very contemporary questions: how do ex-spouses learn to live again in proximity to one another; how do we make peace with our bodies and their own worst impulses; how do we learn to turn and face, full-on, the worst mistakes of our younger selves?

"Engaging. .rich prose and sharp dialogue. With humor and heft, Coake hammers home the ways the past can boomerang to change the present."
"even sharp stories that dwell on relationships both good and bad…tensions that grow increasingly complex. . . Coake can make simple conflicts sing."
"You Would Have Told Me Not To is populated with people so real, I found myself smiling at their triumphs, laughing at their jokes, and wishing I could intervene when they inevitably screwed up. It’s the type of book that stays with you long after you put it down."

Christopher Coake is the author of the novel You Came Back (2012) and the story collection We’re in Trouble (2005), which won the PEN/Robert Bingham Fellowship for a first work of fiction. His new collection, You Would Have Told Me Not To, will be published in 2020 by Delphinium. In 2007 he was named one of Granta’s Best Young American Novelists. His short fiction has been anthologized in collections such as Best American Mystery Stories 2004; The Best American Noir of the Century; and Gutted: Beautiful Horror Stories; and has been published in numerous literary journals. A native of Indiana, Coake received his MFA in fiction from the Ohio State University. He is an Associate Professor of English at the University of Nevada, Reno, where he directs the MFA program in creative writing. He lives in Reno with his wife, Stephanie Lauer, and their two dogs.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9781953002020
ISBN 10	1953002021
Title	You Would Have Told Me Not To
Author	Christopher Coake
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Delphinium Books, Inc
Year published	2020-09-10
Number of pages	240
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.