I’d always loved Provincetown. When I was a kid in New Jersey, my parents would rent a cottage in Wellfleet for a week (or sometimes two when they could afford it), and my memories of those vacations are among the sweetest of my childhood. The beaches and the air and the ocean and the food: all of those were delightful, of course, but there was always one day set aside for visiting “Ptown,” which I guess my parents considered the epitome of weird, and part of our education...
The Families of Political Dissidents – Novel Excerpt
Ching-Hua had lost a lot of weight, her taut face showing little color, and she coughed from time to time. Nevertheless, she still needed to work, repairing clothing for people: patching the knees of boys' trousers, expanding the waists of growing girls' dresses, or sewing sheets and curtains. There hadn’t been much business to begin with, and after she got ill—or perhaps because of her husband’s imprisonment—less and less work came her way.
The Wet Hen Society – Novel Excerpt
My mother’s name was Emily Berrigan and she was a writer of fiction who aspired to be a best-selling author. She spent most of her days up at her desk in my parents’ bedroom, drinking black coffee, smoking Kents and typing with a physical ferocity that rocked her Smith-Corona, something she kept impatiently correcting by squaring the machine in front of her. She was from California—San Diego—and brought with her to our quiet Detroit neighborhood her considered opinion that the world was a much larger and more sophisticated place than that imagined by those who lived around us. She was in her middle 30s, at the time I’m writing about, black-haired and small-boned, beautiful in a dark, honest, intense way, one of those people whose personalities seem apparent in the carving of their face.
The Way He Was – Novel Excerpt
I was staying the weekend at Sans Souci to celebrate my recent graduation. I promised my parents that I would spend time with them and Graham said I should. He had been intending to go on a trip with Colin, so this gave him an opportunity. He needed a break as the intense study was getting to him, although he only had two more years left. We were already planning our future together. Tonight Frankie would be playing in the Harp Bar and I was sorry Graham would miss it, as he had never heard my brother perform.
Life in the Afternoon – Novel Excerpt, Confluence at Café Zurich
I’d been to one bullfight with Valeria’s brother, Carlos, and vowed never to go again. Carlos had convinced me to attend to appreciate this part of Spanish culture and not be such a “Judgmental ugly American. Bullfighting is a form of art, a ballet of human and beast, that our culture celebrates.”
Anchor Baby – Novel Excerpt
Caleb,
You must be wondering how I knew where to send this. I’m sorry I snooped to find out, but I promise I’m trying to help. Your uncle still doesn’t know you’re planning on leaving the company, but he’s suspicious. He knows, for example, that you’ve been trying to open your adoption file—I didn’t tell him, he just found out—and he’s taking this as some sign of instability.