Stay AwakeStay Awake
Stories
Trade paperback edition.
Title rated 3.2 out of 5 stars, based on 35 ratings(35 ratings)
Book, 2012
Current format, Book, 2012, Trade paperback edition., Available .NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY
The Washington Post * San Francisco Chronicle
nbsp;
Before the critically acclaimed novels Await Your Reply and You Remind Me of Me, Dan Chaon made a name for himself as a renowned writer of dazzling short stories. Now, in Stay Awake, Chaon returns to that form for the first time since his masterly Among the Missing, a finalist for the National Book Award.
nbsp;
In these haunting, suspenseful stories, lost, fragile, searching characters wander between ordinary life and a psychological shadowland. They have experienced intense love or loss, grief or loneliness, displacement or disconnection--and find themselves in unexpected, dire, and sometimes unfathomable situations.
nbsp;
A father's life is upended by his son's night terrors--and disturbing memories of the first wife and child he abandoned; a foster child receives a call from the past and begins to remember his birth mother, whose actions were unthinkable; a divorced woman experiences her own dark version of "empty-nest syndrome"; a young widower is unnerved by the sudden, inexplicable appearances of messages and notes--on dollar bills, inside a magazine, stapled to the side of a tree; and a college dropout begins to suspect that there's something off, something sinister, in his late parents' house.
nbsp;
Dan Chaon's stories feature scattered families, unfulfilled dreamers, anxious souls. Theynbsp;exist in a twilight realm--in a place by the window late at night when the streets are empty and the world appears to be quiet. But you are up, unable to sleep. So you stay awake.
nbsp;
Praise for Stay Awake
nbsp;
"Eerily beautiful . . . [Chaon] is the modern day John Cheever."-- Boston Sunday Globe
nbsp;
"Powerful and disturbing . . . The shocks in this collection are many."-- The Washington Post
nbsp;
"Chaon is able to create fully realized characters in mere pages. . . . This collection is further proof that Chaon is one of the best fiction writers working right now."-- Omaha World-Herald
nbsp;
"There are not many fiction writers who can do what Dan Chaon can do. . . . [He is] a literary force."-- The Philadelphia Inquirer
nbsp;
"Intense and suspenseful . . . a highly recommended work, not to be missed."-- Library Journa l (starred review)
nbsp;
"Mesmerizing . . . gripping, masterful fiction."-- The Plain Dealer
nbsp;
"Superbly disquieting."-- The New York Times Book Review
nbsp;
Don't miss the exclusive conversation between Dan Chaon and Emma Straub at the back of the book.
The Washington Post * San Francisco Chronicle
nbsp;
Before the critically acclaimed novels Await Your Reply and You Remind Me of Me, Dan Chaon made a name for himself as a renowned writer of dazzling short stories. Now, in Stay Awake, Chaon returns to that form for the first time since his masterly Among the Missing, a finalist for the National Book Award.
nbsp;
In these haunting, suspenseful stories, lost, fragile, searching characters wander between ordinary life and a psychological shadowland. They have experienced intense love or loss, grief or loneliness, displacement or disconnection--and find themselves in unexpected, dire, and sometimes unfathomable situations.
nbsp;
A father's life is upended by his son's night terrors--and disturbing memories of the first wife and child he abandoned; a foster child receives a call from the past and begins to remember his birth mother, whose actions were unthinkable; a divorced woman experiences her own dark version of "empty-nest syndrome"; a young widower is unnerved by the sudden, inexplicable appearances of messages and notes--on dollar bills, inside a magazine, stapled to the side of a tree; and a college dropout begins to suspect that there's something off, something sinister, in his late parents' house.
nbsp;
Dan Chaon's stories feature scattered families, unfulfilled dreamers, anxious souls. Theynbsp;exist in a twilight realm--in a place by the window late at night when the streets are empty and the world appears to be quiet. But you are up, unable to sleep. So you stay awake.
nbsp;
Praise for Stay Awake
nbsp;
"Eerily beautiful . . . [Chaon] is the modern day John Cheever."-- Boston Sunday Globe
nbsp;
"Powerful and disturbing . . . The shocks in this collection are many."-- The Washington Post
nbsp;
"Chaon is able to create fully realized characters in mere pages. . . . This collection is further proof that Chaon is one of the best fiction writers working right now."-- Omaha World-Herald
nbsp;
"There are not many fiction writers who can do what Dan Chaon can do. . . . [He is] a literary force."-- The Philadelphia Inquirer
nbsp;
"Intense and suspenseful . . . a highly recommended work, not to be missed."-- Library Journa l (starred review)
nbsp;
"Mesmerizing . . . gripping, masterful fiction."-- The Plain Dealer
nbsp;
"Superbly disquieting."-- The New York Times Book Review
nbsp;
Don't miss the exclusive conversation between Dan Chaon and Emma Straub at the back of the book.
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- New York : Ballantine Books, [2012]
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