From the author of the beloved novel The Giant's House - finalist for the National Book Award - comes a beautiful new story collection, her first in twenty years. Laced through with humour, empathy, and rare and magical descriptive powers these nine vibrant stories navigate the fragile space between love and loneliness. In 'Property', a young scholar, grieving the sudden death of his wife, decides to refurbish the Maine rental house they were to share together by removing his landlord's possessions. In 'Peter Elroy: A Documentary by Ian Casey', the household of a successful filmmaker is visited years later by his famous first subject, whose trust he betrayed. And in the unforgettable title story, a family makes a quixotic decision to flee to Paris for a summer, only to find their lives altered in an unimaginable way by their teenage daughter's risky behaviour.

In Elizabeth McCracken's universe, heartache is always interwoven with strange, charmed moments of joy - an unexpected conversation with small children, the gift of a parrot with a bad French accent - that remind us of the wonder and mystery of being alive. Thunderstruck & Other Stories shows this inimitable writer working at the full height of her powers.

Prizes

Short-listed for The Sunday Times EFG Short Story Award 2015 (UK),Long-listed for National Book Award 2014 (UK)

These nine stories are filled with longing, guilt and violence. * New York Times *
Jewelled and barbed with the beauty and brutality of real life, these are sentences of perfect weight and understanding. There are no fillers here, no stories that disappoint: the nine coalesce into something rare and understatedly breathtaking. Like the missing who haunt these stories, Thunderstruck is unforgettable. -- Stuart Evers * Observer *
Wonderful, moving tales. -- Erica Wagner * Financial Times *
An electric blend of hilarity and despair. -- Bonnie Jo Campbell * O, The Oprah Magazine *
[A] powerful collection. -- John Self * Independent on Sunday *
McCracken writes in lilting, contained prose, and imbues her narratives with wry humour and the soothing resonance of fairy tales… An unforgettable collection that should be irredeemably sad but, in fact, is strangely life-affirming. -- Francesca Angelini * Sunday Times *
I was so enthralled by her world, I didn’t want to leave -- Carys Davies * Metro *
Please do yourself a favour and secure a copy of this splendid book. And not because it is the winner of the Story Prize, but because is exceptionally good -- Mario Guslandi * Nudge *

Elizabeth McCracken is the author of five books, Here’s Your Hat What’s Your Hurry, The Giant’s House (a National Book Award finalist), Niagara Falls All Over Again, the memoir An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imag­ination, and Thunderstruck & Other Stories (winner of the 2014 Story Prize, longlisted for the National Book Award). She has received grants and fellow­ships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts and she was chosen as one of Granta’s 20 Best American Writers Under 40. She has served on the faculty at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and currently holds the James Michener Chair for Fic­tion at the University of Texas at Austin.