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Knopf
May 2008
On Sale: May 13, 2008
288 pages
ISBN: 030726808X
EAN: 9780307268082
Hardcover
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Fiction
A stunningly inventive, deeply moving fiction debut: stories
that take us from the slums of Colombia to the streets of
Tehran; from New York City to Iowa City; from a tiny fishing
village in Australia to a foundering vessel in the South
China Sea, in a masterly display of literary virtuosity and
feeling. In the magnificent opening story, “Love and Honor and Pity
and Pride and Compassion and Sacrifice,” a young writer is
urged by his friends to mine his father’s experiences in
Vietnam—and what seems at first a satire of turning one’s
life into literary commerce becomes a transcendent
exploration of homeland, and the ties between father and
son. “Cartagena” provides a visceral glimpse of life in
Colombia as it enters the mind of a fourteen-year-old hit
man facing the ultimate test. In “Meeting Elise,” an aging
New York painter mourns his body’s decline as he prepares to
meet his daughter on the eve of her Carnegie Hall debut. And
with graceful symmetry, the final, title story returns to
Vietnam, to a fishing trawler crowded with refugees, where a
young woman’s bond with a mother and her small son forces
both women to a shattering decision. Brilliant, daring, and demonstrating a jaw-dropping
versatility of voice and point of view, The Boat is an
extraordinary work of fiction that takes us to the heart of
what it means to be human, and announces a writer of
astonishing gifts.
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