DECEMBER 2022 - AudioFile
These yearly anthologies are an unpredictable lot, subject to the tastes of their rotating guest editors, and, as audiobooks, to the skill and sensitivity of their ensemble of narrators. This year’s collection falls short on several counts. The stories and their themes tilt toward the offbeat and the anticlimactic. Few have a conventional storyline, or a decisive conclusion. These are narratives that require flexibility and nuance, yet in nearly every case they are defeated by an ensemble that is limited in experience and range. Cindy Kay is the most adept and easiest on the ear. The others are to a greater or lesser degree locked in a personal style that overrides the narrative, and in several stories redefines it. D.A.W. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine
From the Publisher
As guest editor of this year’s entry in the Best American Short Stories series, [Jesmyn] Ward has assembled a brilliant and moving collection...These 20 stories capture beautiful and devastating human experiences and the tales we tell to persevere. Contributors' captivating prose and incredible storytelling will plunge readers into fascinating worlds and challenge them to take on new perspectives.” — Booklist (starred review) on The Best American Short Stories 2021
“If you feel uneasy choosing just one author’s collection, let a witty novelist pick the best stories of the year for you.” — Nicole Y. Chung, Washington Post
“This terrific and surprising collection of tales by a diverse group of writers lives up to Diaz’s ‘rah-rah’ (his term) rallying cry for the form... Count on them to transport you.” — USA Today on Best American Short Stories 2018
“This year’s collection brings together fine stories by famous fiction writers like Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Karen Russell... [while] a great deal of the magic is generated by the appearance of less familiar names... Each of these outstanding stories is, as Diaz observes, a chance to listen ‘to some other lone voice struggling to be heard against the great silence.’” — National Book Review on The Best American Short Stories 2018
“This anthology rejoices in its range of subject matter, its emotional complexity and its depiction of quietly powerful moments.” — Shelf Awareness on The Best American Short Stories 2019
Booklist (starred review) on The Best American Short Stories 2021
These twenty stories capture beautiful and devastating human experiences and the tales we tell to persevere. Contributors’ captivating prose and incredible storytelling will plunge readers into fascinating worlds and challenge them to take on new perspectives.”
DECEMBER 2022 - AudioFile
These yearly anthologies are an unpredictable lot, subject to the tastes of their rotating guest editors, and, as audiobooks, to the skill and sensitivity of their ensemble of narrators. This year’s collection falls short on several counts. The stories and their themes tilt toward the offbeat and the anticlimactic. Few have a conventional storyline, or a decisive conclusion. These are narratives that require flexibility and nuance, yet in nearly every case they are defeated by an ensemble that is limited in experience and range. Cindy Kay is the most adept and easiest on the ear. The others are to a greater or lesser degree locked in a personal style that overrides the narrative, and in several stories redefines it. D.A.W. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine
