Widow : Stories

"In prose shimmering with intelligence and compassion, Michelle Latiolais dissects the essentials of everyday life to find the heartbeat within."--Alice Sebold, author of The Lovely Bones "Bracing, exposed, ruthlessly mercurial . . . the rewards here are enormous."-- New York Times Book Review "The inveterate readers among you may be asking yourselves, do I read this book or Joyce Carol Oates' book of stories about widows and her recent memoir about widowhood? And I say to you, read them all, but begin first with Michelle Latiolais."--Alan Cheuse, NPR's All Things Considered "Pulse[s] with a surprising, offbeat erotic energy."-- Elle "Sublime . . . [Latiolais] manages to find something luminous in the broken shards--still sharp, still drawing blood--that remain in the wake of losing what could not feasibly be lost."-- San Francisco Chronicle "Latiolais is as close to Alice Munro as a writer can get, but with a more modern edge to her tone, low graceful notes, not too much flash, perfect restraint and the feeling of contents under pressure."-- Los Angeles Times "Widowis a hymn to reverence, simultaneously heartbroken and celebratory. Michelle Latiolais has given us the rarest item, a splendidly articulated masterpiece."--William Kittredge "In this luminous collection of stories, the gifted Michelle Latiolais writes of loss in all its surprising manifestations. Widowis a devastation and a wonder."--Christine Schutt "There is something mysterious about this book, as there always is in the writing that matters most. It eludes explanation. It illumines terrifying realities. Only because these pages seem nakedly willing to take the imprint of every emotion, no matter how ugly, do they possess this great beauty."--Elizabeth Tallent The stories of Widowconjure the nuances of inner sensations as if hitting the notes of a song, deftly played across human memory. These meditations bravely explore the physiology of grief through a masterful interweaving of tender insight and unflinching detail.