Animal Spirit - (Vintage Contemporaries) by Francesca Marciano (Paperback)
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<p/><br></br><p><b> Book Synopsis </b></p></br></br><b>From the author of the acclaimed story collection <i>The Other Language </i>comes a fresh collection of six colorful, richly realized stories told with inimitable humor, exactitude, and heart.</b> <p/>Centered in Rome but transporting us into worlds as varied and alluring as they are emotionally real, Francesca Marciano's stories paint landscapes that are populated--vividly, hauntingly--by animals: from violent seagulls and starlings circling the evening sky in exhilarating formation to magical snakes and a tiny dog on the side of a deserted road. In unforgettable, cinematic frames, events unfold, especially in the lives of women. An affair ends painfully at a dinner table, an actress's past comes crashing down on her during an audition, an unhappy wife seeks respite in a historic palazzo sublet. Two starkly different couples imagine parenthood during a Greek island holiday and a young girl returns from rehab, deciding to set out anew with a traveling circus. A man in crisis draws his ex-lover deep into the New Mexico desert. <p/>With spellbinding clarity, the six masterly stories in <i>Animal Spirit</i> inhabit the minds and hearts of Marciano's characters. They chronicle deeply human moments of realization and recognition, indelible instants of irrevocable change--epiphanies sometimes sparked by our connection with animals and the primal power they show us.<p/><br></br><p><b> Review Quotes </b></p></br></br><br>"Radiant . . . Marciano claims a spot beside the best practitioners of the form." <br><b>--</b><i><b>O, The Oprah Magazine</b><br></i><br>"This short story collection erupts from Francesca Marciano's head like Athena sprang from Zeus's, its tales both measured and erotic, and filled with predators and creatures and worrisome thoughts." <br><b>--</b><i><b>Literary Hub</b><br></i><br>"Really satisfying. . . . Exotic settings, wild animals, Italian details--thank you, Francesca Marciano." <br><b>--<i>Baltimore Public Radio</i> </b> <p/>[Animal Spirit] surprised me with its power. . . . [Marciano] is such a clear-eyed writer, showing with particular skill and compassion what makes her characters tick . . . [<i>Animal Spirit</i> is], in truth, about us--about all of the lovely and terrible things that make us human. <br><b>--<i>Fredericksburg Freelance Star </i></b><br><i> </i><br>"Francesca Marciano possesses . . . a special magic. . . . Marciano displays a spellbinding sense of control over her characters, and she does so with surprising brevity and well-composed pacing. . . . There's a sense of confidence in each sentence that allows the reader to be as vulnerable as her characters. . . . A passionate, compelling exercise in the fine art of short fiction. It's proof that the most intimate narratives are often the most powerful." <br><b>--<i>BookPage</i></b> <p/>"The fates of [her] characters are shaped by the animals whose lives intersect theirs. . . . Marciano is a master at making even the most seemingly banal settings seem forbiddingly foreign . . . and she excels at crafting conclusions that are both satisfying and enigmatic." <br><b>--<i>Booklist</i></b> <p/>"[A] sharp-eyed and effortlessly graceful collection. . . . Polished and compulsively readable, this is a real treat." <br><b>--<i>Publishers Weekly </i>(starred review)</b> <p/>"Vibrantly described. . . . Rich, leisurely. . . . Death's lasting power echoes back through the stories, but Marciano's closing lines offer hard-won hope. . . . Emotionally charged issues of commitment, loyalty, and trust explored with dry yet oddly comforting European wit." <br><b>--<i>Kirkus Reviews</i> (starred review)</b><br><p/><br></br><p><b> About the Author </b></p></br></br><b>Francesca Marciano</b> is the author of the novels <i>Rules of the Wild, Casa Rossa, </i>and <i>The End of Manners, </i>and the story collection <i>The Other Language. </i>She lives in Rome.
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