Elizabeth McCracken

"Ten months after her mother's death, the narrator of The Hero of This Book takes a trip to London. The city was a favorite of her mother's, and as the narrator wanders the streets, she finds herself reflecting on her mother's life and their relationship. Thoughts of the past meld with questions of the future: Back in New England, the family home is now up for sale, its considerable contents already winnowed. The narrator, a writer, recalls all that...

"Award-winning author Elizabeth McCracken is an undisputed virtuoso of the short story, and this new collection features her most vibrant and heartrending work to date"-- In these stories, the mysterious bonds of family are tested, transformed, fractured, and fortified. A recent widower and his adult son ferry to a craggy Scottish island in search of puffins. An actress who plays a children's game show villainess ushers in the New Year with her deadbeat...

From the author of the beloved novel The Giant's House comes a beautiful new story collection. In 'Property,' a young scholar, grieving the sudden death of his wife, decides to refurbish a rental house by removing his landlord's possessions. In 'Peter Elroy: A Documentary by Ian Casey,' the household of a successful filmmaker is visited years later by his famous first subject, whose trust he betrayed. In 'The Lost & Found Department of Greater Boston,'...

A platonic romance between a librarian and a teenage boy. The boy is James, who suffers from giantism--never stops growing--while she is Peggy, a spinster 14 years his senior. During their 10-year relationship she redoes a house and a car to fit him. Only when he dies is there sex--with his father.