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Scribner
July 2011
On Sale: July 12, 2011
256 pages
ISBN: 1451617968
EAN: 9781451617962
Hardcover
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Fiction
Stone Arabia, Dana Spiottaβs moving and intrepid third novel, is about family, obsession, memory, and the urge to createβin isolation, at the margins of our winner-take-all culture. In the sibling relationship, βthere are no first impressions, no seductions, no getting to know each other,β says Denise Kranis. For her and her brother, Nik, now in their forties, no relationship is more significant. They grew up in Los Angeles in the late seventies and early eighties. Nik was always the artist, always wrote music, always had a band. Now he makes his art in private, obsessively documenting the work, but never testing it in the world. Denise remains Nikβs most passionate and acute audience, sometimes his only audience. She is also her familyβs first defense against the worldβs fragility. Friends die, their motherβs memory and mind unravel, and the news of global catastrophe and individual tragedy haunts Denise. When her daughter, Ada, decides to make a film about Nik, everyoneβs vulnerabilities seem to escalate. Dana Spiotta has established herself as a βsingularly powerful and provocative writerβ (The Boston Globe) whose work is fiercely original. Stone Arabiaβriveting, unnerving, and strangely beautifulβreexamines what it means to be an artist and redefines the ties that bind.
 Media BuzzFresh Air - NPR - September 22, 2011
Fresh Air - NPR - July 25, 2011
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