A provocative and haunting new collection from critically acclaimed writer Lily Tuck, Heathcliff Redux and Other Stories explores, with cool precision, the hidden dynamics and unspoken conflicts at the heart of human relationships.
In the novella, a married woman reads Wuthering Heights at the same time that she falls under the erotic and destructive spell of her own Heathcliff. In the stories that follow, a single photograph illuminates the intricate web of connections between friends at an Italian café; a forgotten act of violence in New York’s Carl Schurz Park returns to haunt the present; and a woman is prompted by a flurry of mysterious emails to recall her time as a member of the infamous Rajneesh cult.
With keen psychological insight and delicate restraint, Heathcliff Redux and Other Stories pries open the desires, doubts, and secret motives of its characters and exposes their vulnerabilities to the light. Sharp and unflinching, the novella and stories together form an exquisitely crafted collection from one of our most treasured, award-winning writers.
A New York Times Editors’ Choice
One of the BBC’s 10 Books to Read in 2020
Named One of “9 Best Short-Story Collections” by New York Magazine
“[R]emarkably arresting… It’s a master class in digression as a narrative device… There’s something endlessly fascinating in the way Tuck’s interest in literary relationships extends even to the works in her own oeuvre.”—New York Times Book Review
“Erotic, unforgiving, and packs a punch.” —“The Cut,” New York Magazine
“Powerful… An earlier reviewer has said that Tuck is ‘a genius with moments.’ That’s far from all she is, but yes, tons of them in a book that weighs ounces.”—Shawangunk Journal
“Sublime… With her signature unembellished prose, Tuck often writes about women whose prospects are limited by their historical era and choice of mate… [in] sentences stark with circumspection and glistening with clarity.”—Shelf Awareness
“Tuck reveals grace in unexpected places as she exposes the uneasy turns and harsh truths of her characters’ journeys.” —Booklist
“Tuck probes the gulf between expectations and reality as well as between outward appearances and internal disquiet in this collection of four short stories and a novella… Tuck’s restrained and elegant stories deceptively carry a deep emotional heft.”—Publishers Weekly
“Lean, intriguing, formally innovative prose… National Book Award winner Tuck turns her attention to Emily Brontë’s gothic, psychologically riveting Wuthering Heights in Heathcliff Redux, the novella at the center of this collection.”—Kirkus Reviews
“Another minimalist masterpiece, a tight knot of a novel filled with intertextual puzzles, pathos, and happy rewards.”—Boston Globe
“Elegant, raw, and powerful… Magnificent enough to be reread and renewed.”―Publishers Weekly (starred, boxed review)
“Masterfully detailed and elegant in all its parts.”―Kirkus Reviews
“Another wonderful Tuck prism.”—Shelf Awareness
“Intriguing and intelligent… Exciting in its sweep, ambition, and conceptual intricacy.”—Boston Globe
“Enlivening.”—New Yorker
“Intriguing… intricate.”—Entertainment Weekly
“A mosaic of storytelling that is both poetic and absorbing.”—NPR.com
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