Description
Book Synopsis*Longlisted for the National Book Award * A stunning exploration of characters shaped by the forces of history, the debut work of fiction by Molly Antopol, a 2013 National Book Foundation "5 Under 35" Honoree.
Trade Review"Fresh and offbeat… memorable and promising." -- Dwight Garner - New York Times
"A writer of seismic talent…Not since Robert Stone has a writer so examined the nature of disillusionment and the ways in which newfound hope can crack the cement of failed dreams." -- Adam Johnson, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Orphan Master's Son
"Beautiful, funny, fearless, exquisitely crafted, and truly novelistic in scope…It's clear we're in the hands of a master storyteller—a writer with the emotional heft of Nicole Krauss, the intellectual depth of Saul Bellow, and the penetrating wit of Philip Roth. This book isn’t simply powerful and important—it's necessary." -- Jesmyn Ward, National Book Award-winning author of Salvage the Bones
"Molly Antopol's stories display that wonderful combination of an original voice with settings that are masterfully rendered. A rich collection, a great read." -- Abraham Verghese, author of Cutting for Stone
"A brave, generous, and effortlessly smart story collection by a young writer with talent to burn." -- Lauren Groff, author of Arcadia
"This is deeply humane fiction, coursing with the heat of a passionate, sympathetic heart." -- Ken Kalfus, author of A Disorder Peculiar to the Country and Equilateral
"Allegiances are not always what they seem, in these wonderfully engrossing stories of Old- and New-World Jews cast on the sometimes rough waters of history. Molly Antopol is a vivid chronicler of the good intentions and big misapprehensions of her characters, as we intently watch them try to get it right." -- Joan Silber, author of Fools
"An exceptional collection of wide-ranging, powerful, and nuanced stories…You come away with an ache in your soul for all her people and what they were up against, how they triumphed, how they failed, and how they managed, somehow, to endure." -- Peter Orner, author of Last Car Over the Saramore Bridge and Love and Shame and Love
"Deeply satisfying stories…morally complex and emotionally instructive." -- Christine Schutt, author of Florida and All Souls
"[Antopol] draws the reader to her deeply flawed characters [with] their keen self-awareness, and their consequent ability to act with a semblance of moral, sometimes even selfless, integrity." -- Publishers Weekly
"Antopol accomplishes in each of these stories what would take most writers an entire novel to achieve: a fully imagined world." -- Dara Horn, author of A Guide for the Perplexed
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The Unamericans is poised to be this year's sensation… the layered riches and historical sweep of its stories make them feel grand, like novels writ small." -- Esquire Magazine
"[A] poised debut." -- Vogue
"Evoked with uncommon skill and confidence." -- Lauren Waterman - Dujour
"In a word: Wow!" -- New York Journal of Books
"A smart, empathetic, well-crafted first collection—Antopol is a writer to watch." -- Kirkus Reviews
"Sharply funny and always intelligent, and readers will find [these stories] immediately appealing." -- Library Journal
"[Antopol] is a wry, occasionally funny writer, with an unerring grasp on human nature…" -- Laura Moser - Jewish Daily Forward
"Antopol writes convincingly and with great empathy." -- Carmela Ciuraru - San Francisco Chronicle
"[Will] make you nostalgic, not just for earlier times, but for another era in short fiction. A time when writers such as Bernard Malamud, and Issac Bashevis Singer and Grace Paley roamed the earth." -- Meg Wolitzer - NPR
"Witty and heartbreaking prose." -- Kim Winternheimer - Oregonian
"[Full of] witty descriptions and engaging characters." -- Nadia Kalman - Jewish Review of Books
"Unflinchingly honest… Thrilling." -- Hannah K. Gold - The Nation
"Outstanding… the stories begin as though the reader is walking into an intimate conversation already underway… [and] the endings are never predictable." -- Sandee Brawarsky - Jewish Weekly
