Showing results by author "Adam Haslett" in All Categories

A boon for booklovers, this audio set features funny, fantastical and poignant stories about people with unique and passionate connections to the written word.

Tony Roberts reads a hilarious Walter R. Brooks story about how Ed - a talking horse - became a voracious reader of adventure tales and mysteries. In a story by Italo Calvino, read by John Shea, a man tries to make the most of his beach holiday by reading and making love at the same time.

When Margaret's fiancé, John, is hospitalized for depression, she faces a choice: carry on with their plans or leave. She decides to marry him. This is the story of what unfolds from this act of love and faith, when their three children help their mother to care for Michael. Told in alternating points of view by all five members of the family, this searing, gut-wrenching and yet frequently hilarious novel brings alive with remarkable poignancy the depth of family love.

In this compilation, characters make choices that define their lives and suffer consequences often dire or disquieting. Abraham prepares to slay Isaac; siblings fall in love with the same man; a Thai man hides his secret guilt from his best friend on draft selection day. Delve into the secret lives of people and discover what drives them to betrayal.

After years of traditional treatments and therapies, Derrick still suffers from pain ineluctable enough that it has become his identity. Then he hears of an exclusive, very private New York clinic that promises relief. It comes highly recommended by a friend. The multisession remedy unfolds as a sensorial wonder that’s so illuminating it’s enough to bring tears to Derrick’s eyes. It’s all working so well. So unexpectedly well.

Very funny and very pointed, Adam Haslet’s "Seibert", honored in the Best American Short Stories 2014, gets to the root of how technology—our personal obsession with it and its role in creating a society built on surveillance—disrupts our relationships with each other. Single in New York and connected to her smartphone, Sylvia has a problem living in reality. Or, rather, she lives in an alternate reality of constant scrolling headlines promising apocalypse and of friendships mediated through text messaging.

A disgraced Hong Kong pop star wavers between acceptance and revenge after a sex tape scandal. An OKCupid hookup becomes a missed connection even while it's happening. A couple's quest for ever-safer sex leads to a near-fatal love triangle.