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YOU THINK THAT'S BAD
By: Jim Shepard
Stories
Knopf
April 2011
On Sale: March 22, 2011
240 pages
ISBN: 0307594823
EAN: 9780307594822
Hardcover
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Fiction
Following Like Youβd Understand, Anywayβawarded the Story Prize and a finalist for the National Book AwardβJim Shepard returns with an even more wildly diverse collection of astonishingly observant stories. Like an expert curator, he populates the vastness of human experienceβfrom its bizarre fringes and lonely, breathtaking pinnacles to the hopelessly mediocre and desperately below averageβwith brilliant scientists, reluctant soldiers, workaholic artists, female explorers, depraved murderers, and deluded losers, all wholly convincing and utterly fascinating. A βblack worldβ operative at Los Alamos isnβt allowed to tell his wife anything about his daily activities, but he canβt resist sharing her intimate confidences with his work buddy. A young Alpine researcher falls in love with the girlfriend of his brother, who was killed in an avalanche he believes he caused. An unlucky farm boy becomes the manservant of a French nobleman whoβs as proud of his military service with Joan of Arc as heβs aroused by the slaughter of children. A free-spirited autodidact, grieving her lost sister, traces the ancient steps of a ruthless Middle Eastern sect and becomes the first Western woman to travel the Arabian deserts. From the inventor of the Godzilla epics to a miserable G.I. in New Guinea, each comes to realize that knowing better is never enough. Enthralling and unfailingly compassionate, You Think Thatβs Bad traverses centuries, continents, and social strata, but the joy and struggle that Shepard depicts with such devastating sensitivityβall the heartbreak, alienation, intimacy, and accomplishmentβhas a universal resonance.
 Media BuzzFresh Air - NPR - June 20, 2011
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