The Isle Of Youth

(Paperback)

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Description

The Isle of Youth journeys through lives mired in secrecy and deception. From a newlywed marooned on honeymoon in Patagonia; to an abandoned tourist in Paris; to a woman who must travel to Antarctica to unpick the secrets of her brother's death, the characters in these mesmerizing stories are complicated, vulnerable and ruthless, each afflicted by desires with they try to satiate despite never knowing what they truly are. The stories in this collection are by turns magical and unexpected - with a healthy dose of brutality to keep them anchored in reality. Laura Van den Berg tinges her landscapes with a sense of the surreal, inviting readers to recognise - as her characters do - the surprising ways in which the familiar can suddenly reveal its darker contours.

Reviews

"Wonder and mystery are recurring motifs. The women here are one step ahead of disaster or one step behind it, and either way they are eager to discover what's next . . . Van den Berg, in this wonderful collection, never lets us turn away." --Natalie Serber, "The New York Times Book Review""Confident, gripping stories . . . Ms. van den Berg spins complex plots around a sense of emotional emptiness. Her stories are bursting at the seams, while her characters are lonely to the core." --John Williams, T"he New York Times""The stories in Laura van den Berg's dreamy "The Isle of Youth "are absolutely captivating."--"Vanity Fair"""The Isle of Youth," is a smart, fun, noir-y treasure map of where families hide their secrets and lost souls hide themselves. Van den Berg somehow packs a duffel bag of plot into carry-on-size stories. She also has the right kind of range: from brutal to moving to funny, South America to Paris to Antarctica, really great to freaking outstanding." --Kathryn Schulz, "New York "Magazine"Darting, shifting things . . . though her stories find footing in dark matter, the reader ends up feeling something akin to having been freed by the end of the reading . . . [a] tremendous collection." --Weston Cutter, "Minneapolis Star Tribune""If you like Murakami's cool prose, that Raymond Chandler-esque aloofness in the face of strange events, have I got the book for you . . . ["The Isle of Youth"]" is"a small book, but it feels much bigger. I could have kept reading for days." --Rosecrans Baldwin, NPR's All Things Considered"Curiosity--sprung from idleness, neglect, or betrayal--is a force to be reckoned with in these delicately layered narratives linked by themes of mystery and survival ...Van den Berg gracefully captures such unseen moments of triumph and failure as lives are derailed--and discovered--in her stories." --"ELLE Magazine""If you like your female protagonists quirky, questing, and quixotic, you will adore this story collection

Author Bio

Laura van den Berg won the O. Henry Award in 2014, the Pushcart Prize in 2009, has twice been shortlisted for the Frank O'Connor International Award and a host of other prizes. The Isle of Youth was a New York Times Editor's Choice. Laura is also the author of What the World Will Look Like When All the Water Leaves Us and Find Me. www.lauravandenberg.com