Description
Opening up the classics of Russian literature to a wider audience, Saunders provides commentary on seven classic short stories from the likes of Chekhov and Tolstoy, and provides astute observations on how fiction functions.
From the Man Booker Prize-winning, New York Timesbestselling author of Lincoln in the Bardo, a literary masterclass on how to become both a better writer and reader, on what makes great stories work, and what they can tell us about how to live.
In A Swim in a Pond in the Rain, George Saunders guides the reader through seven classic Russian short stories he's been teaching for twenty years as a professor in the prestigious Syracuse University graduate MFA creative writing program.
Paired with stories by Chekhov, Turgenev, Tolstoy, and Gogol, these essays are intended for anyone interested in how fiction works and why it's more relevant than ever in these turbulent times. Saunders approaches each of these stories technically yet accessibly, and through them explains how narrative functions; why we stay immersed in a story and why we resist it; and the bedrock virtues a writer must foster.
For the process of writing, Saunders reminds us, is as much a craft as it is a quality of openness and a willingness to see the world through new eyes. Funny, frank, and rigorous, A Swim in a Pond in the Rainultimately shows how great fiction can change a person's life and become a benchmark of one's moral and ethical beliefs.
Number of pages: 432
Dimensions: 216 x 135 mm
