The Isle of Youth
Stories
Laura van den Berg
Shortlisted for the Frank O’Connor International Award
A New York Times Editors Choice
The Isle of Youth is a collection of short stories that explore the lives of women mired in secrecy and deception. From a newlywed caught in an inscrutable marriage, to a pair of sister private eyes working a bafling case in South Florida, to a teenager who assists her magician mother and steals from the audience – the characters in these stories are at once vulnerable and dangerous, bighearted and ruthless, and they will do what it takes to survive.
The Isle of Youth was a New York Times Editors’ Choice and named a ‘Best Book of 2013’ by over a dozen venues, including NPR, The Boston Globe, The New Republic, and O, The Oprah Magazine.
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Uniformly excellent – emotionally complex, very raw – but always with a mixture of pathos and humour that made me think of Lorrie Moore.
Dave Eggers
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Absolutely captivating
Vanity Fair
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A wonderful collection, Laura van den Berg never lets us turn away
New York Times
