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THE STATE WE'RE IN
By: Ann Beattie
Maine Stories
Scribner
August 2015
On Sale: August 11, 2015
224 pages
ISBN: 150110781X
EAN: 9781501107818
Kindle: B00P42WN18
Hardcover / e-Book
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Literature and Fiction | Fiction
A magnificent new collection of linked stories from a multiple prize-winning master of the short form. The State Weβre In, Ann Beattieβs first collection of new stories in a decade, is about how we live in the places we have chosenβor have been chosen by. It is about the stories we tell our families, our friends, and ourselves; the truths we may or may not see; how our affinities unite or repel us; and where we look for love. Told through the voices of vivid and engaging women of all ages, The State Weβre In explores their doubts and desires and reveals the unexpected moments and glancing epiphanies of daily life. Some of Beattieβs idiosyncratic and compelling characters have arrived in the coastal state by accident, while others are trying to escape. The collection is woven around Jocelyn, a wry, disaffected teenager living with her aunt and uncle for the summer, forging new friendships, avoiding her motherβs calls, taking writing classes, and encountering mortality for the first time. As in life, the narratives of other characters interrupt Jocelynβs, sometimes challenging and sometimes embellishing her view. Riveting, witty, sly, and bold, these stories describe a state of mind, a manner of being. A Beattie story, says Margaret Atwood, is βlike a fresh bulletin from the front: we snatch it up, eager to know whatβs happening out there on the edge of that shifting and dubious no-manβs-land known as interpersonal relations.β Beattieβs sentences, her insights, and her inimitable voice are mesmerizing.
 Media BuzzStudio 360 - September 5, 2015
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