The Peaceable Kingdom: Stories

Eleven impeccably crafted, painfully hilarious tales of innocence lost and families in search of connection from the New York Times-bestselling author (San Francisco Chronicle).

A reluctant trophy wife on her Italian honeymoon; a young woman in love with her sister’s dead boyfriend; a lonely puppeteer flirting with the hostess of a children’s party; a teenage girl traveling to Paris with her father and, unexpectedly, his young girlfriend. Francine Prose’s characters inhabit a world of rich emotion and startling clarity, searching for connection in a world full of surprise and humor; they travel, love, break up, and start again. Even their animal companions-a gecko rescued from a wild party, a dog who bites a bride, a hamster who dies unexpectedly and sends a family on a journey to give it a proper funeral-shine with the emotional complexity and sly satire that make Prose’s work such a joy to experience.

In this collection, the New York Times-bestselling author and National Book Award finalist demonstrates the craft, humor, and piercing human insight that make her, in the words of Gary Shteyngart one of a handful of truly indispensable American writers.