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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 Spiottaโs moving and intrepid third novel, is about family, obsession, memory, and the urge to createโin isolation, at the margins of our winner-take-all culture. In the sibling relationship, โthere are no first impressions, no seductions, no getting to know each other,โ 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 Nikโs most passionate and acute audience, sometimes his only audience. She is also her familyโs first defense against the worldโs fragility. Friends die, their motherโs 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, everyoneโs vulnerabilities seem to escalate. Dana Spiotta has established herself as a โsingularly powerful and provocative writerโ (The Boston Globe) whose work is fiercely original. Stone Arabiaโriveting, unnerving, and strangely beautifulโreexamines 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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